ADDRESS 


LJ-r- 


OF    THE 

COMMITTEE  APPOINTED  BY  A  PUBLIC  MEETING 

v 

HELD   AT 

Fanenil  Hall,  September  24,  1846, 

FOR    THE    PURPOSE    OF    CONSIDERING    THE    RECENT    CASE    OF 

KIDNAPPING   PEOM   OUR    SOIL, 

AND  OF  TAKING  MEASURES  TO  PREVENT  THE  RECURRENCE  OF 

SIMILAR    OUTRAGES. 


WITH    AN    APPENDIX. 


BOSTON: 
WHITE  &  POTTER,  PRINTERS, 

Chronotype  Office. 

1846. 


ADDRESS. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  : 

A  shameful  outrage  upon  the  sacred  rights  of  Humanity  has 
lately  been  perpetrated  in  our  borders.  It  was  one  of  those  cases 
in  which  the  wrong  done  to  one  man,  puts  into  danger  the  rights 
of  thousands  of  others,  and  affects  principles  dear  to  all.  It 
was  a  case,  which,  if  passed  over  in  silence,  would  seem  to 
show  that  we  refuse  to  grant  to  others  those  rights  which  we 
would  die  to  maintain  for  ourselves  and  our  children. 

A  young  man,  held  in  cruel  bondage  in  the  State  of  Louisiana, 
driven  to  desperation  by  his  wrongs,  and  hopeless  of  the  future, 
resolved,  at  whatever  risk,  to  flee  from  his  master  and  take  ref 
uge  among  the  freemen  of  the  North.  He  hid  himself  in  a  ship, 
then  ready  for  sea,  and  lay  down  upon  the  cargo  with  a  little 
bread  and  water  by  his  side  to  make  the  fearful  trial  of  living, 
through  the  weary  days  and  nights  of  a  passage  of  two  thou 
sand  miles,  in  a  dark,  hot  and  stifling  hold.  The  brave  fellow 
arrived  safely ;  the  ship  cast  anchor  in  a  port,  which,  of  all 
others  in  the  world,  history  would  point  out  as  the  haven  of  the 
oppressed, — the  Port  of  Boston.  But  the  owners  of  the  ship, 
fearing  the  laws  of  Louisiana  and  the  loss  of  a  gainful  traffic 
rather  than  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  and  the  loss  of  their 
good  name,  determined  to  send  him  back  to  bondage. 

But  they  knew  that  this  would  be  an  offence  not  only  against 
humanity,  but  one  punishable  with  the  Slate  Prison;  and, 
therefore,  they  stealthily,  and  by  force,  carried  away  their  vic 
tim  from  their  ship,  before  it  reached  the  wharf,  and  kept  him 
concealed  among  the  islands  in  Boston  harbor.  This  cruel  treat 
ment  did  not  quite  discourage  him ;  the  dome  of  the  State  House, 
which  seemed  a  temple^fLJi^eit^-^fo  spires  of  the  churches 


where  a  JUST  GOD  was  worshipped;  the  very  doors  of  the 
houses  in  which  freemen  lived,  were  in  plain  sight,  and  he  hoped 
that,  if  he  could  only  reach  the  city,  he  should  find  some  brave 
and  good  man  who  would  help  him  in  his  sore  distress.  At 
the  first  chance,  he  broke  away  from  his  keepers,  seized  upon 
a  boat,  and  made  for  the  shore.  But  his  pursuers  were  close 
at  his  heels,  and  he  ran  for  his  life  and  his  liberty.  The  foot 
prints  of  the  flying  slave  and  of  his  cruel  kidnappers  are  yet 
fresh  upon  our  soil !  They  overtook  him,  seized  upon  him,  ac 
cused  him  to  the  by-standers  of  being  a  fugitive  felon  ;  and  then 
it  was  that  the  poor  fellow,  looking  eagerly  around  and  seeing 
none  but  white  faces,  concluded  there  was  no  freedom  for  him 
here,  bowed  his  head  in  despair,  and  was  led  away  a  slave 
through  the  streets  of  Boston. 

The  men  who  were  guilty  of  this  crime,  had  wealth  and 
power,  and  they  found  means  to  hurry  their  victim  on  board  a 
ship  and  send  him  back  to  slavery,  before  the  agents  of  the  law 
would,  or  the  friends  of  humanity  could  come  to  his  rescue. 
As  soon  as  the  wicked  deed  became  known,  a  public  meeting 
was  straitvvay  called  for,  and  Fanueil  Hall  could  not  hold  all 
the  multitude,  which  gathered  together  to  manifest  their  indig 
nation  at  the  wrong  done  to  an  unfortunate  man,  and  at  the 
shame  which  had  been  brought  upon  the  city.  That  meeting 
appointed  us  a  Committee  of  Vigilance,  "  to  take  all  needed 
measures  to  secure  the  protection  of  the  laws  to  all  persons  who 
may  be  hereafter  in  danger  of  abduction  from  this  Common 
wealth."  We  accepted  the  trust,  because  we  knew  that  cases 
of  kidnapping  were  common  in  the  country ;  because  we  heard 
the  voice  of  human  beings  crying  aloud  for  help;  and  con 
science,  manliness  and  love,  all  urged  us  to  do  our  uttermost  in 
their  behalf. 

We  have  already  taken  some  measures  for  preventing  any 
fugitive  slaves  from  being  illegally  carried  away  from  Boston, 
but  our  sense  of  duty,  our  love  of  our  fellow-beings,  and  our 
obligations  to  God,  the  common  father  of  all  men,  bid  us  not  to 
stop  here.  We  therefore  call  upon  our  fellow-citizens — upon  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Free  States,  to  give  us  their  sympathy 
and  aid.  Upon  you  it  depends  to  say  whether  your  soil  shall 
be  longer  used  as  a  human  hunting-ground;  upon  you  it  de- 


pends  to  say  whether  the  North  shall  any  longer  be  a  party  to 
human  slavery.  If  there  be  those  among  you  who  have  not 
carefully  considered  what  is  their  duty  in  this  matter,  we  beg 
them  to  do  so,  and  to  decide  what  stand  they  will  take  in  future 
questions  about  slavery. 

The  greatest  wrong  that  can  be  done  to  an  innocent  human 
being  is  to  deprive  him  of  liberty  for  the  selfish  ends  of  others; 
to  treat  him  like  a  beast  of  burden  or  a  senseless  thing;  to 
crush  all  manliness  in  his  heart;  to  disregard  his  holiest  affec 
tions  ;  to  stunt  his  soul  by  preventing  the  growth  of  its  highest 
capacities ;  in  a  word,  to  enslave  him  for  life. 

Our  common  sense  and  common  humanity  show  this  to  be  a 
crime,  and  forbid  us  to  have  part  or  lot  in  it ;  the  religion  of 
Jesus  forbids  it,  by  telling  us  to  do  unto  others  as  we  would  have 
them  do  unto  us ;  the  laws  of  the  United  States  forbid  it,  and 
declare  that  whoever  commits  it  on  the  coast  of  Africa  shall  be 
punished  as  a  pirate.  Nevertheless,  this  wrong  is  this  day  done 
to  millions  of  our  fellow-beings,  in  this  our  country.  We  will 
not  judge  our  brethren  of  the  South ;  we  will  not  overlook  the 
serious  difficulties  with  which  they  are  surrounded ;  but  we 
must  and  do  proclaim  that  we  cannot  longer  be  made  a  party  to 
slavery  ;  that  we  will  not  alloXv  our  free  soil  to  be  polluted  by 
the  slave-hunter  and  by  the  crimes  of  kidnapping  and  enslav 
ing  human  beings,  without  doing  all  that  becomes  men  and 
Christians  to  prevent  it.  We  say  crimes,  because,  though  the 
highest  court  in  the  land  may  declare  such  deeds  to  be  legal, 
the  higher  Court  of  Heaven  overrules  the  decision  and  declares 
them  to  be  infamous  and  wicked.  What  God,  speaking  through 
the  enlightened  consciences  of  all  men,  declares  to  be  wrong, 
not  all  the  tribunals  of  the  earth  can  make  right. 

The  Slave  States  of  the  South  urged,  perhaps,  by  what  they 
think  is  dangerous  to  the  lives  and  property  of  their  white 
inhabitants,  have  passed  laws  which  violate  the  spirit  of  the 
National  Compact.  They  require  us  to  surrender  our  State 
jurisdiction  upon  our  own  soil,  whenever  the  question  of  slavery 
is  concerned;  they  require  us  to  reverse  the  great  principle,  that 
a  man  is  innocent  until  he  is  proved  to  be  guilty,  and  to  con 
sider  any  one  among  us,  whom  they  may  demand  as  their  prop 
erty,  to  be  a  slave,  unless  he  can  prove  that  he  is  a  freeman. 


6 

They  imprison  the  free  colored  citizens  of  the  North  who  enter 
their  ports,  and  they  thrust  out  with  insult  and  violence  our 
Ambassadors  who  go  to  seek  legal,  constitutional  and  peaceable 
redress.  It  becomes,  then,  the  Free  States  of  the  North,  not 
impelled  by  a  selfish  regard  to  the  lives  and  property  of  part  of 
their  inhabitants,  but  moved  by  a  sense  of  duty  to  God  and  to 
their  fellow-men,  to  repel  these  attempts  to  make  them  a  party 
to  slavery,  and  to  take  measures  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
common  rights  of  humanity. 

Amongst  other  measures,  we  earnestly  and  solemnly  call 
upon  the  freemen  of  the  North  to  obtain  for  the  people  security 
"in  their  persons  against  unreasonable  seizure,"  and  security 
of  life  and  liberty  to  EVERY  MEMBER  of  the  HUMAN  FAMILY  found 
within  their  borders,  unless  the  same  shall  have  been  forfeited 
by  crime  or  uby  due  process  of  law  " 

We  call  upon  you  to  do  this,  because  enlightened  nations  of 
Europe  and  sister  nations  in  America,  and  even  some  States  of 
Africa,  have  set  you  the  example ;  because  it  is  in  accordance 
with  the  plainest  principles  of  political  right  and  justice ;  be 
cause  you  have  no  more  right  to  deny  the  benefits  of  your  free 
institutions  to  whoever  will  obey  your  laws,  than  you  have  to 
monopolize  the  light  of  the  sun  and  the  air  of  heaven  ;  because 
it  is  a  shame  and  a  disgrace  that  the  house  of  a  Christian  free 
man  cannot  give  as  secure  an  asylum  to  a  fugitive  slave  as 
would  the  tent  of  a  barbarian  Arab ;  because  your  own  con 
sciences  and  the  laws  of  your  State  utterly  deny  and  repel  the 
idea  of  human  ownership  in  human  beings,  and  you  violate 
both  in  delivering  up  one  man  to  another  who  claims  him  as 
his  property. 

If  none  of  these  considerations,  nor  the  claims  of  human 
brotherhood  can  move  you;  if  there  be  those  who  are  content 
to  let  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States* 
in  the  case  of  fugitive  slaves  pass  as  the  law  of  the  land,  we  beg 
them  to  consider,  not  how  that  decision  affects  the  rights  of 

O 

black  men  alone,  but  the  rights  of  men  of  any  color. 

The  Agent  of  any  Slaveholder  may  this  day  enter  your  house, 
and  lay  his  hands  upon  your  daughter,  and  carry  her  oif  as  his 

*  Prigg  vs.  State  of  Pennsylvania,  Peters's  Reports,  1842. 


slave.  If  you  make  resistance  and  raise  a  tumult,  he  has  only 
to  go  before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  or  a  judge  of  the  United 
States  Court,  and  swear  that  she  is  his  slave,  and  the  functionary 
must  give  her  up  to  him,  unless  you  can  prove  by  testimony,  satis 
factory  to  the  justice,  that  she  is  not  a  slave !  And  from  this  decis 
ion  there  is  no  appeal !  It  would  be  in  vain  for  you  to  demand  a 
trial  by  jury,  as  you  could  if  it  were  a  question  about  your 
horse  or  any  dead  chattel ;  it  would  be  in  vain  to  try  to  shield 
her  by  the  act  of  Habeas  Corpus  ;  you  could  save  her  only  by 
forcibly  resisting  the  law,  or  as  the  Roman  centurion  saved  his 
daughter's  honor ! 

Fellow-citizens!  Such  outrage  and  wrong  is  possible  so 
long  as  the  recent  construction  of  the  Constitution  respecting 
fugitive  slaves  is  to  be  considered  as  the  law  of  the  land.  If 
you  do  not  fear  them  in  case  of  your  own  children,  will  you 
suffer  them  to  hang  over  the  children  of  the  humblest  individ 
ual  among  you,  be  his  color  what  it  may? 

For  ourselves,  we  hold  that  any  longer  voluntary  allegiance 
to  the  Union  would  be  sin  towards  God,  and  treason  to  human 
ity,  unless  we  conscientiously  use  every  effort  to  effect  a 
speedy  change  in  those  political  relations,  which  deny  the  right 
of  trial  by  jury  in  a  matter  of  more  than  life  and  death  to  any 
member  of  our  community ;  which  enable  the  slave-hunter  to 
trample  upon  the  Habeas  Corpus ;  which  give  him  our  free  soil 
for  a  hunting-ground,  and  make  us  a  party  to  a  system  of  sla 
very  that  we  abhor. 

We  furthermore  call  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Free 
States  to  resolve,  as  we  do,  to  oppose  the  election  to  any 
political  office,  of  any  man  who  does  not  stand  pledged  by 
his  character  and  actions  to  strive  for  the  immediate  abrogation 
of  all  laws  arid  constitutional  provisions  by  which  the  Free 
States  are  involved  in  the  guilt  of  slavery ; 

To  strive  earnestly  to  obtain  the  enactment  of  a  law  confis 
cating  all  ships  in  which  human  beings  shall  be  illegally  carried 
from  a  free  State  into  slavery ;  of  a  law  placing  the  crime  of 
kidnapping  a  man  from  a  Free  State  in  the  same  grade  and 
punishing  it  in  the  same  way  as  man-stealing  from  the  coast 
of  Africa;  and  of  such  other  laws  as  may  be  necessary  to 
secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  every  man  who  may  choose 
to  live  among  us : 


8 

To  give  comfort  and  help  to  any  fugitive  slaves  who  may  be 
thrown  upon  our  hospitality,  and  to  strive  to  secure  for  them  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  which  we  claim  for  ourselves;  if  a 
slave-hunter  comes  among  us  in  the  pursuit  of  a  fugitive,  not 
to  give  him  any  aid  or  counsel,  but  to  regard  him  as  the  com 
mon  enemy  of  mankind,  until  he  shall  renounce  his  evil  purpose ; 
to  watch  him  continually,  and  use  every  manly  and  Christian 
effort  to  prevent  him  from  carrying  his  victim  away  into  bond 
age  ;  and  to  regard  with  shame  and  indignation  any  freeman 
of  the  North  who  may  in  any  way  aid  or  countenance  the  kid^ 
nappers. 

Finally,  fellow-citizens,  being  united  together,  as  a  committee 
for  the  protection  of  personal  rights ;  our  principles  contained  in 
the  foregoing  address : — with  the  solemn  determination  to  secure 
to  all  men,  upon  our  soil,  Life  and  Liberty ;  we  call  upon  you 
all  to  aid  and  assist  us  in  our  work ;  to  devote  yourselves  to 
every  righteous  exertion  toward  the  establishment  for  all  oth 
ers,  of  that  liberty  you  so  highly  prize  for  yourselves.  And 
for  the  procurement  of  the  objects  at  which  we  aim,  we  would 
respectfully  and  earnestly  recommend  the  early  formation  of  a 
NATIONAL  LEAGUE  FOR  FREEDOM,  uniting  in  a  permanent  organi 
zation  all  who  would  strive  to  realize  the  IDEAL  OF  AMERICAN 
LIBERTY. 

SAMUEL  G.  HOWE,  JOSEPH  SOUTHWICK, 

ELLIS  GRAY  LORING,  WALTER  CHANN1NG, 

CHARLES  SUMNER,  S.  S.  CURTIS, 

J.  A.  ANDREW,  BENJAMIN  WEEDEN, 

SAMUEL  MAY,  A.  C.  SPOONER, 

HENRY  B.  STANTON,  AMOS  B.  MERRILL, 

J.  B.  SMITH,  CHARLES  F.  HOVEY, 

SAMUEL  E.  SEWALL,  S.  E.  BRACKETT, 

JOHN  G.  KING,  J.  W.  BROWNE, 

JOHN  L.  EMMONS,  HENRY  I.  BOWDITCH, 

THEODORE  PARKER,  T.  T.  BOUVE, 

RICHARD  HILDRETH,  JAMES  N.  BUFFUM,  (Lynn,) 

JOHN  A.  INNIS,  (Salem,)  GEORGE  W.  BOND, 

JAMES  T.  FISHER,  WILLIAM  F.  CHANNING, 

WILLIAM  F.  WELD,  JAMES  F.  CLARKE, 

WILLIAM  C.  NELL,  GEORGE  DODGE, 

ROBERT  MORRIS,  JR.,  HENRY  JAMES  PRENTISS. 
ANSON  J.  STONE, 


APPENDIX. 


Tliis  report,  with  the  exception  of  the  speech  of  Hon.  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  was 
made  by  a  friend,  who  is  an  amateur  Phonographer. 


An  immense  concourse  of  people  assembled  at  Faneuil  Hall  on 
Thursday  evening,  Sept.  24,  called  together  by  a  notice  in  the  papers, 
to  consider  the  late  case  of  abduction  in  this  city. 

At  a  quarter  past  seven  o'clock,  the  Committee  of  Arrangements 
came  in  with  the  Hon.  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS,  and  took  their  stand 
upon  the  platform.  The  venerable  gentleman  was  received  with  every 
demonstration  of  respect,  and  when  he  was  conducted  to  the  Chair,  the 
hall  resounded  with  plaudits  and  cheers. 

Dr  S.  G.  HOWE  stepped  forward  and  said  that  he  had  been  requested 
by  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  to  call  the  meeting  to  order,  but  it 
appeared  that  it  would  be  unnecessary  to  call  for  the  nomination  of  a 
Chairman,  as  one  had  already  been  elected  by  acclamation. 

MR.  ADAMS  then  commenced  in  a  very  feeble  tone  of  voice,  but 
warming  into  strength  and  volume  as  he  proceeded,  and  said — 

Fellow-citizens  :  It  may,  perhaps,  be  somewhat  surprising  to  most  of 
you  here  present,  to  see  me  in  this  place.  But  an  event  has  occurred 
which  has  brought  me  here.  Forty  years  ago,  I  stood,  by  the  suffrages 
of  your  fathers  and  perhaps  of  your  grandfathers,  in  this  same  situation. 
An  event  has  now  taken  place  similar  to  that  which,  at  that  time,  brought 
us  together,  and  I  have  complied  with  a  request  to  come  from  my  resi 
dence  in  a  neighboring  town,  to  preside  over  your  deliberations  upon 
that  important  event. 

The  state  of  my  health,  and  the  feebleness  of  my  voice,  will  not  prob 
ably  permit  one  in  ten  to  hear  what  I  may  say.  This  was  a  great  ob 
jection  in  my  mind  to  my  coming,  and  nothing  less  than  the  importance 
and  the  similarity  of  circumstances,  could  have  overcome  that  objection. 
1  recollect  the  former  occasion  well  :  A  seaman  had  been  taken  out 
of  an  American  frigate  by  the  crew  of  a  British  man-of-war,  and  a 
similar  meeting  was  called,  not  only  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  but  of 
the  people  of  neighboring  towns.  The  venerable  Elbridge  Gerry,  of 


&  APPENDIX. 

whom  you  have  all  heard,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  was  sent  for  to  come  from  his  residence  in  Cambridge,  to 
preside.  He  came,  and  apologizing  for  his  age  and  infirmities  which 
should  have  kept  him  at  home,  he  said  that  the  event  was  of  such  a  nature 
that  if  he  had  but  one  day  more  to  live  he  would  have  come.  On  that  same 
principle  I  now  appear  before  you.  The  state  of  my  health  and  my  in 
firmities  are  such  as  would  have  prevented  me  on  any  other  occasion 
than  this,  from  leaving  my  house.  What  that  occasion  is,  will  be  ex 
plained  to  you  by  the~gentlemen  who  called  this  meeting,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  for  me  to  enlarge  upon  it. 

Jt  is  a  question  whether  this  commonwealth  is  to  maintain  its  inde 
pendence  as  a  state  or  not.  It  is  a  question  whether  your  and  my  na 
tive  commonwealth  is  capable  of  protecting  the  men  who  are  under  its 
laws,  or  not. 

Fellow-citizens :  If  my  voice  were  stronger,  and  I  could  hope  to  obtain 
a  hearing,  I  might  enlarge,  and  urge  the  people  of  the  state  to  express, 
as  on  a  former  occasion,  a  cool,  deliberate,  and  equally  firm  and  intrep 
id  resolution. 

It  was  then  voted,  that  the  President  should  nominate  other  officers 
of  the  meeting,  and  the  following  named  gentlemen  were  nominated  and 
elected : 

STEPHEN  C.  PHILLIPS,  »     y       Presidents. 

SAMUEL  MAY,  ) 

JOHN  ALBION  ANDREW,  Secretary. 

DR.  HOWE  then  addressed  the  meeting  as  follows  : — 

I  have  been  requested,  Fellow-citizens,  as  Chairman  of  the  Commit 
tee  of  Arrangements  for  this  meeting,  to  make  a  statement  of  the  reasons 
for  calling  this  meeting,  and  of  the  objects  which  it  is  proposed  to  attain  ; 
and  I  shall  do  so  very  briefly.  A  few  weeks  ago,  there  sailed  from  New 
Orleans  a  vessel  belonging  to  this  port,  owned  and  manned  by  New  Eng 
land  freemen,  under  the  flag  of  our  Union — the  flag  of  the  free.  When  she 
had  been  a  weekuponher  voyage,  and  was  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
laws  of  Louisiana,  far  out  upon  o  broad  and  illimitable  ocean,  there  was 
found  secreted  in  her  hold,  a  man  lying  naked  upon  the  cargo,  half  suf 
focated  by  the  hot  and  stifled  air,  and  trembling  with  fear.  He  begged 
the  sailors  who  found  him  not  to  betray  him  to  the  captain,  for  he  had 
rather  die  than  be  discovered  before  he  got  to  Boston.  Poor  fellow  ! 
he  had  heard  of  Boston  ;  he  had  heard  that  there  all  men  are  free  and 
equal  ; — he  had  seen  the  word  Boston  written  on  that  ship,  and  he  had 
said  to  himself — "  I,  too,  am  a  man,  and  not  a  brute  or  a  chattel,  and  if 
I  can  only  once  set  my  foot  in  that  blessed  city,  my  claims  to  human 
brotherhood  will  be  admitted,  and  I  shall  be  treated  as  a  man  and  a  bro 
ther," — and  he  hid  himself  in  the  hold.  Well,  Sir,  the  knowledge 
of  his  being  there  could  not  long  be  kept  from  the  captain,  and  he  was 
dragged  from  his  hot  and  close  hiding-place,  and  brought  upon  deck. 
It  was  then  seen  that  he  was  a  familiar  acquaintance, — a  bright  intelli 
gent  mulatto  youth,  who  used  to  be  sent  by  his  master  to  sell  milk  on 
board ;  he  had  been  a  favorite,  and  every  man,  from  the  captain  to  the 


APPENDIX.  O 

cabin-boy,  used  to  have  his  jokes  with  "Joe."  They  had  treated  him 
like  a  human  being, — could  he  expect  they  would  ever  help  to  send  him 
into  slavery  like  a  brute  ? 

And  now  what  was  to  be  done  ?  Neither  the  captain  nor  any  of  his 
officers  had  been  privy  to  his  coming  on  board ;  they  could  riot  be  con 
victed  of  the  crime  of  wilfully  aiding  a  brother  man  to  escape  from  bond 
age  ;  the  man  was  to  them  as  though  he  had  been  dropped  from  the 
clouds,  or  been  picked  up  floating  on  a  plank  at  sea  ;  he  was  thrown, 
by  the  providence  of  God,  upon  their  charity  and  humanity ! 

But  it  was  decided  to  send  him  back  to  New  Orleans  ;  to  deliver  him 
up  to  his  old  owner  ;  and  they  looked  long  and  eagerly  for  some  ship 
that  would  take  charge  of  him.  None  such,  however,  was  found,  and 
the  "  Ottoman"  arrived  safely  in  our  harbor.  The  wish  of  the  poor  slave 
was  gratified  ;  his  eyes  were  blessed  with  the  sight  of  the  promised  land. 
He  had  been  treated  well  for  the  most  part,  on  board, — could  he  doubt 
that  the  hearts  of  his  captors  had  softened  ?  Can  we  suppose  that  sail 
ors,  so  proverbial  for  their  generous  nature,  could  have  been,  of  their 
own  accord,  the  instruments  of  sending  the  poor  fellow  back  ?  I,  for 
one,  will  not  believe  it. 

But  the  captain  communicated  with  his  rich  and  respectable  owners, 
men  whom  he  was  accustomed  to  honor  and  obey,  and  they  decided  that 
whether  a  human  being  or  not,  poor  "Joe"  must  be  sent  back  to  bondage  ; 
they  would  not  be  a  party,  even  against  their  will,  to  setting  free  a  slave. 
(Loud  cries  of  "  Shame,"  "  Shame,"  and  "  Let  us  know  the  name  of 
the  owner.")  The  name  of  the  firm  is  John  H.  Pearson  &  Co.  (Repeated 
cries  of  "  Shame,"  "  Shame,"  "  Shame.")  It  was  a  dangerous  busi 
ness,  this  that  they  undertook  ;  they  did  not  fear  to  break  the  laws  of 
God — to  outrage  the  laws  of  humanity  ;  but  they  did  fear  the  laws  of  the 
Commonwealth,  for  those  laws  threatened  the  State's  Prison  to  whoever 
should  illegally  imprison  another.  They  knew  that  no  person,  except 
the  owner  of  the  runaway  slave,  or  his  agent,  or  a  marshal  of  the  Unit 
ed  States,  had  any  right  to  touch  him  ;  they  were  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other  ;  and  they  therefore  hid  their  victim  upon  an  island  in  our  har 
bor  and  detained  him  there. 

But  he  escaped  from  their  clutches  ;  he  fled  to  our  city — to  the  city 
of  his  hopes — he  was  here  in  our  very  streets,  fellow-citizens  !  he  had 
gained  an  Asylum, — he  called  on  us  for  aid.  Of  old,  there  were  tem 
ples  so  sacred  that  even  a  murderer  who  had  taken  refuge  in  them  was 
free  from  pursuit ;  but  no  such  temple  did  Boston  offer  to  the  hunted 
slave  ;  he  was  pursued  and  siezed,and  those  of  our  wondering  citizens 
who  inquired  what  it  all  meant,  were  deceived  by  a  lie  about  his  being 
a  thief,  and  he  was  dragged  on  board  ship. 

But  the  news  of  this  got  abroad  ;  legal  warrants  were  at  once  procured  ; 
the  shield  of  the  habeas  corpus  was  prepared  to  cover  the  fugitive  ; 
officers  of  justice  were  urged  to  the  pursuit ;  the  owner  of  the  vessel  was 
implored  to  o.ive  an  order  for  the  man's  surrender, — but  all  in  vain. 
A  vessel  was  found,  bound  for  New  Orleans,  which  would  consent  to  be 
made  a  slave-ship  of, — (Loud  cries  for  the  name  of  the  ship.)  The  Ni 
agara,  belonging  to  the  same  owners,  and  on  board  of  this  ship  the  man 


4  APPENDIX- 

was  sent  back,  to  receive  the  lash,  and  to  wear  the  shackles,  for  his  ill- 
starred  attempt  to  be  free,  and  to  drag  out  all  the  days  of  his  life,  a  de 
graded,  wretched,  and  hopeless  slave  ! 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  how  does  all  this  differ  from  piracy  and  the 
slave-trade  ?  The  man  was  free — free  at  sea,  free  on  shore  ;  and  it 
was  only  by  a  legal  process  that  he  could  be  arrested.  He  was  siezed 
in  our  city  ;  bound  and  carried  into  slavery  by  those  who  had  no  more 
right  to  do  so  than  has  the  slave-trader  to  descend  upon  the  coast  of  Gui 
nea  and  carry  off  the  inhabitants.  All  these  facts  are  known  and  ad 
mitted  ;  nay,  they  are  defended  by  some  who  call  themselves  followers 
of  Him  who  said,  "  As  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them ;"  they  are  defended,  too,  by  some  of  those  presses, 
whose  editors  arrogate  to  themselves  the  name  of  Watchmen  on  the 
towers  of  Liberty  ! 

And  now  it  will  be  asked, — it  has  been  asked,  tauntingly, — How  can 
we  help  ourselves  ?  What  can  this  meeting  do  about  it  ? 

In  reply,  let  me  first  r'.ite  what  it  is  not  proposed  to  do  about  it.  It 
is  not  proposed  to  move  the  public  mind  to  any  expression  of  indigna 
tion,  much  less  to  any  acts  of  violence  against  the  parties  connected  with 
the  late  outrage.  As  to  the  captain,  it  is  probable  that  he  was  more  sin 
ned  against  than  sinning.  I  am  told  that  he  is  a  kind,  good  man,  in 
most  of  the  relations  of  life,  arid  that  he  was  made  a  tool  of.  Let  him 
go  and  sin  no  more.  As  for  the  owners  and  their  abettors — the  men 
who  used  the  wealth  and  influence  which  God  gave  them,  to  kidnap  and 
enslave  a  fellow-man, — a  poor,  trembling,  hunted  wretch,  who  had  fled 
to  our  shores  for  liberty  and  sought  refuge  in  our  borders — let  them  go 
too, — their  punishment  will  be  dreadful  enough  without  our  adding  to 
it.  Indeed,  I,  for  one,  can  say  that  I  would  rather  be  in  the  place  of  the 
victim  whom  they  are  at  this  moment  sending  away  into  bondage, — I 
would  rather  be  in  his  place  than  in  theirs  :  Aye  !  through  the  rest  of 
my  earthly  life,  I  would  rather  be  a  driven  slave  upon  a  Louisiana  plan 
tation,  than  roll  in  their  wealth  and  bear  the  burden  of  their  guilt ;  and 
as  for  the  life  to  come,  if  the  police  of  those  regions  to  which  bad  men 
go,  be  not  as  sleepy  as  the  police  of  Boston, — then,  may  the  Lord  have 
mercy  upon  their  souls  ! 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  again  it  is  asked,  "  What  shall  we  do  ?"  Fellow- 
citizens,  it  is  not  a  retrospective  but  a  prospective  action  which  this  meet 
ing  proposes,  and  there  are  many  ways  in  which  good  may  be  done, 
and  harm  prevented,  some  of  which  I  hope  will  be  proposed  by  those 
who  may  follow  me,  and  who  probably  will  be  more  accustomed  to  such 
meetings  than  I  am.  But  first,  let  me  answer  some  of  the  objections 
which  have  been  urged  by  some  of  those  gentlemen  who  have  been  in 
vited  to  come  up  here  to-night  and  help  us,  and  have  declined  to  do  so. 
They  say,  "  We  must  not  interfere  with  the  course  of  the  law."  Sir, 
they  know  as  well  as  we  know,  that  if  the  law  be  the  edge  of  the  axe,  that 
public  opinion  is  the  force  that  gives  strength  and  weight  to  the  blow. 

Sir,  we  have  tried  the  "  let  alone  system  "  long  enough  ;  we  have  a 
right  to  judge  the  future  by  the  past,  and  we  know  that  the  law  will  not 
prevent  such  outrage  in  time  to  come,  unless  the  officers  of  the  law  are 


APPENDIX,  P 

driven  by  public  opinion  to  do  their  duty.     What  has  made  the  African 
slave-trade  odious  ?     Was  it  the  law,  or  public  opinion  ? 

But,  Sir,  in  order  to  test  the  strength  of  this  objection,  let  us  suppose 
that  instead  of  the  poor  hunted  mulatto,  one  of  the  clergymen  of  Boston 
had  been  carried  off  into  slavery.  Would  the  pulpit  have  been  silent  ? 
Had  one  of  our  editors  been  carried  away,  would  the  press  have  been 
dumb  ?  Would  there  have  been  any  want  of  glaring  capitals  and  notes 
of  exclamation  ?  Suppose  a  lawyer  had  been  kidnapped  in  his  office, 
bound,  and  carried  off  to  work  on  a  slave  plantation  ;  would  the  limbs  of 
the  law  have  moved  so  lazily  as  they  did  week  before  last  ?  Or  suppose 
a  merchant  had  been  torn  from  his  counting-room  in  State  street,  and 
shipped  for  the  slave-market  of  Tunis  ;  would  there  not  have  been  an  ex 
citement  all  over  the  city  ?  Think  you  there  would  not  have  been  "  In 
dignation  meetings"  on  "Change?" 

And  yet,  Sir,  are  any  of  these  men  more  precious  in  the  sight  of  God 
than  the  poor  mulatto?  Or  suppose  a  slave  ship  from  the  coast  of  Gui 
nea,  with  her  human  cargo  on  board,  had  been  driven  by  stress  of  wea 
ther  into  our  port,  and  one  of  her  victims  had  escaped  to  our  shore,  and 
been  recaptured  and  carried  off  in  the  face  of  the  whole  community  ; 
would  there  have  been  any  want  of"  indignation"  then  ?  And,  Sir,  is 
there  any  difference,  would  it  be  a  greater  crime  to  carry  such  an  one 
away,  except  that  as  this  man  had  been  once  a  slave,  he  might  be  made 
a  slave  again, — that  is,  that  two  wrongs  might  make  a  right. 

No,  Mr.  Chairman,  these  are  not  the  true  reasons.  It  is,  Sir,  that  the 
"peculiar  institution,"  which  has  so  long  been  brooding  over  this  coun 
try  like  an  incubus,  has  at  last  spread  abroad  her  murky  wings,  and  has 
covered  us  with  her  benumbing  shadow.  It  has  silenced  the  pulpit ;  it  has 
muffled  the  press  ;  its  influence  is  everywhere.  Court  street,  that  can 
find  a  flaw  in  every  indictment,  and  can  cunningly  devise  ways  to  save 
the  murderer  from  the  gallows — Court  street  can  find  no  way  of  es 
cape  for  the  poor  slave;  State  street,  that  drank  the  blood  of  the  martyrs 
of  liberty, — State  street  is  deaf  to  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  slave  :  the 
port  of  Boston,  that  has  been  shut  up  by  a  tyrant  king  as  the  dangerous 
haunt  of  freemen, — the  port  of  Boston  has  been  opened  for  the  slave- 
trader  ;  for  God's  sake,  Mr.  Chairman,  let  us  keep  Faneuil  Hall  free. 
Let  there  be  words  of  such  potency  spoken  here  this  night  as  shall  break 
the  spell  that  is  upon  the  community.  Let  us  devise  such  means  and 
measures  as  shall  secure  to  every  man  who  seeks  refuge  in  our  bor 
ders,  all  the  liberties  and  all  the  rights  which  the  law  allows  him. 

Let  us  resolve  that  even  if  the  slave-hunter  comes  to  this  city  to  seek 
his  runaway  victim,  we  will  not  lay  our  hands  upon  him,  but  we  will 
fasten  our  eyes  upon  him,  and  will  never  take  them  off  till  he  leaves 
our  borders  without  his  prey.  Sir,  there  is  a  potency,  a  magic  power, 
in  the  gaze  of  honest  indignation.  I  am  told  that  one  of  the  parties  of  the 
late  outrage — one  of  the  owners  of  the  u  Ottoman,"  came  up  here  to 
this  temple  of  liberty  the  other  night  to  hear  Mr.  John  P.  Hale  talk  about 
slavery.  He  was  discovered  and  pointed  out.  And,  Mr.  Chairman, 
what  was  done  to  him  ?  Why,  Sir,  he  was  fairly  looked  out  of  this 
Hall.  No  one  touched  him  ;  but  he  could  not  stand  the  look  of  indigna 
tion,  and  he  fled  away.  Sir,  this  beats  the  hunters  of  the  West ; — 


(3  APPENDIX. 

they  boast  that  they  can  "grint.be  varmint  off  the  trees,"  but  they  can- 
not  look  a  slave-hunter  out  of  countenance,  as  the  freemen  of  the  East 
can. 

I  say,  Sir,  if  ever  the  slave-hunter  come  among  us  in  pursuit  of  his 
victim,  let  us  not  harm  a  hair  of  his  head — "  let  us  touch  not  the  hem  of 
his  garment;  but  let  him  be  a  Pariah  among  us,"  and  cursed  be  he  who 
gives  him  aid,  who  gives  him  food,  or  fire,  or  bed,  or  anything  save  that 
which  drove  his  friend  and  coadjutor  from  Faneuil  Hall  the  other  night. 

Dr.  Howe  was  frequently  interrupted  by  loud  and  repeated  bursts  of 
enthusiastic  applause.  After  concluing  his  remarks,  the  following  Re 
solutions  were  presented  by  JOHN  A.  ANDREW  : — 

Resolved,  That  the  first  duty  of  all  government  is  to  guarantee  the  personal 
safety  of  every  individual  upon  its  soil;  and  that  the  removal,  by  fraud  or  force, 
of  any  person,  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  laws,  especially  with  the  purpose 
of  preventing  inquiry  into  the  rights  of  such  person,  by  the  competent  tribunals, 
is  an  insult  to  the  dignity  of  the  sovereign  power,  arid  a  violation,  as  well  of  the 
rights  of  the  government,  as  of  the  immediate  victim  of  the  outrage. 

Resolved,  That  we  recognize  nothing  in  the  institutions  or  laws  of  any  foreign 
State  or  Nation  which  can  justify  or  excuse  any  violation  of  the  smallest  right 
or  privilege  of  the  humblest  individual  within  the  borders  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts  ;  and  that  whatever  may  be  the  requisitions  of  foreign  govern 
ments  upon  persons  found  within  the  reach  of  their  legal  process,  here,  at  least, 
shall  the  equal  laws  of  our  venerable  Commonwealth  be  respected  as  supreme  and 
inviolable. 

Resolved,  That  the  spirit  of  justice  arid  freedom  will  be  dead  amongst  us,  when 
an  injury  done  to  the  least  individual,  shall  cease  to  be  felt  as  a  wrong  to  the 
whole  community. 

Resolved,  That  the'late  seizing  and  abducting  into  slavery,  without  any  pre 
tence  of  legal  authority,  of  a  man  found  in  the  exercise  of  his  freedom  in  the 
streets  of  the  city  of  Boston,  should  be  felt  as  an  alarming  menace  against  the 
personal  rights  and  safety  of  every  citizen. 

Resolved,  That  every  person,  who  by  active  or  tacit  co-operation  has  aided  or 
abetted  in  kidnapping  the  individual  and  carrying  him  into  slavery,  deserves  the 
stern  reprobation  of  a  community  which  lias  solemnly  branded  the  slave  trade  as 
equivalent  to  piracy. 

Resolved,  That  we  call  on  the  owners  of  the  bark  Niagara,  who  have  been 
charged  in  the  public  prints,  by  Captain  Hannum,  the  immediate  abductor  of  the 
individual  in  question,  with  having  aided  in  and  consented  to  this  illegal  and 
shameful  act,  publicly  to  disavow  all  participation  in  a  proceeding  so  fatal  to 
their  character  as  merchants  and  as  men,  or  to  make  all  the  reparation  in  their 
power,  by  rescuing  the  individual  suflerer  from  the  tortures  to  which  their  ship 
has  illegally  borne  him  back,  at  whatever  expense  of  money  and  effort  to  them 
selves. 

Resolved,  That  this  meeting  recommend  the  formation  of  a  Committee  of 
Vigilance,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  take  all  needed  measures  to  secure  the  pro 
tection  of  the  laws  to  all  persons  who  may  hereafter  be  in  danger  of  abduction 
from  this  Commonwealth. 

MR.  SUMNER  being  now  loudly  called  by  general  acclamation,  came 
forward  and  said, — 

Mr.  Chairman,  and  Fellow-citizens,  I  have  been  drawn  here  to-night 
simply  as  a  spectator,  to  bear  my  testimony,  by  a  silent  vote,  to  the  reso 
lutions  that  shall  be  adopted  on  this  occasion ;  and  consequently  I  am 
not  prepared  to  say  anything  except  what  comes  from  a  heart  overflow 
ing  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  I  am  proud  to  be  in  Faneuil  Hall  on 


APPENDIX.  7 

this  occasion,  and  to  address  you,  Mr.  President.  I  reverence  you  as 
one  of  the  leaders  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  I  listened  with  satisfaction  to 
your  statement  from  the  chair  to-night,  that  forty  years  ago  in  this  very 
hall,  you  appeared  as  a  defender  of  liberty.  A  seaman  was  kidnapped 
from  an  American  frigate  by  an  English  frigate.  The  English  frigate 
Leopard,  in  1806,  carried  away  an  American  seaman  from  the  Chesa 
peake. 

It  was  on  that  occasion  that  you,  Mr.  President  took  the  lead.  It  was 
then  against  the  power  of  England  that  the  indignation  of  this  people 
was  roused.  Now  it  is  not  against  the  power  of  England,  and  1  am  glad 
that  it  is  not,  but  it  is  another  power — not  foreign,  but  domestic — not  of 
any  nation  beyond  our  borders,  but  a  power  that  is  within  our  own  coun 
try — the  power  of  Slavery.  It  is  that  Institution  in  our  own  country, 
which  has  invaded  the  soil  of  Massachusetts, — it  is  that  Institution  which 
has  done  to  Massachusetts  what  the  power  of  England  did  to  the  frigate 
Chesapeake.  It  has  taken  a  man  from  our  jurisdiction. 

It  is,  then,  right  for  us  to  come  up  to  Faneuil  Hall,  to  see  what  shall 
be  done  in  order  to  protect  all  who  are  beneath  our  jurisdiction,  against 
such  outrages  in  future. 

I  listened  to  the  remarks  of  my  friend  who  opened  this  meeting,  with 
great  satisfaction,  believing  his  course  to  be  the  true  one.  I  would  not 
harm  a  hair  of  the  head  of  that  captain  who  has  carried  back  to  sla 
very  a  fugitive  slave.  The  captain  of  the  "  Ottoman, "it  has  been  said, 
is  in  other  respects  an  amiable  man — a  man  of  good  character.  And 
I  fear  that  he  has  erred  in  this  matter  by  yielding  to  the  temptation  of 
circumstances  which  have  been  too  strong  for  him.  And  let  this  urge 
us  to  direct  our  opposition  more  strongly  against  that  institution  which 
puts  such  temptations  in  the  way  of  our  citizens.  We  are  told  that  the  poor 
African  has  been  returned  to  slavery.  And  it  may  be  asked,  "  Had  the 
master  of  the  vessel  any  legal  right  to  do  so?"  1  answer,  No!  In 
the  whole  transaction  he  was  a  volunteer — a  volunteer  against  law  and 
against  humanity.  There  is  no  law  of  the  United  States,  no  regulation 
in  the  Constitution,  rendering  it  necessary  for  a  person  under  such  cir 
cumstances,  without  authority  from  the  master,  to  return  a  fugitive  to 
bondage.  I  say  then  that  the  captain  was  a  volunteer — he  violated  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts  in  the  cause  of  Slavery. 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  what  is  the  duty  of  Massachusetts  ?  If  I 
remember,  it  was  said  by  an  ancient  sage,  that  Government  is  the 
best  where  an  injury  to  the  humblest  individual  is  resented  as  an  injury 
to  the  whole  commonwealth.  And  that  poor  unfortunate,  who  has  been 
pictured  to  you  to-night,  when  he  touched  the  soil  of  Massachusetts  was 
as  much  entitled  to  the  protection  of  its  laws  as  any  one  of  you,  fellow- 
citizens,  as  much  as  you,  Mr.  President,  covered  with  honors  as  you 
are. 

Some  twenty  years  ago,  in  the  state  of  New  York,  an  individual,  not 
a  colored  person,  was  kidnapped,  carried  away,  and  killed.  That  out 
rage  caused  an  immense  excitement  in  the  part  of  the  country  in  which 
it  took  place.  The  excitement  spread  from  New  York  to  Massachu 
setts,  and  finally  enveloped  all  New  England  in  its  rage.  The  abduc 
tion  of  William  Morgan — of  that  single  individual,  by  the  Free  Masons 


8  APPENDIX. 

of  his  own  state,  roused  the  Northern  States  and  raised  a  party  which 
exercised  an  important  influence  upon  the  politics  of  this  country. 

Now  an  individual  has  been  stolen — we  do  know  that  he  has  been 
carried  away  into  slavery,  though  we  do  not  know  that  he  has  been 
slain — but.  he  has  been  carried  back  to  suffer  all  the  wrongs  which  slave 
ry  can  inflict.  That  outrage  should  rouse  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
and  the  Northern  states  to  call  for  the  abolition  of  that  Institution  which 
has  caused  it. 

Mr.  President,  I  feel  that  lean  say  nothing  upon  this  question  to  add 
to  the  eloquence  of  your  presence  in  this  Hall,  and  I  therefore  content 
myself  with  seconding  the  resolutions  which  have  been  introduced. 

A  call  was  then  made  for  "  Phillips,"  "  Phillips,"  and  MR.  STEPHEN  C. 
PHILLIPS  was  advancing,  when  several  voices  called  for  "  Wendell  Phil 
lips,"  and  the  former  gentleman  retired.  Upon  a  renewal  of  the  calls, 
however,  he  stepped  forward  and  said  : — 

It  is  true,  Mr.  President,  as  has  been  beautifully  remarked  by  the 
friend  (Mr.  SUMNER)  who  preceded  me — that  the  eloquence  most  appro 
priate  to  this  occasion,  is  the  eloquence  of  your  PRESENCE  ! — of  the 
place  of  meeting,  where  we  seem  even  now  to  listen  to  the  returning 
echo  of  the  accents  of  former  days — and  of  the  unsurpassed  and  ex 
pressive  spectacle  before  us.  In  sympathy  with  the  noble  purpose  by 
which  you,  sir,  have  been  actuated,  thousands  of  your  fellow-citizens 
have  met  you  here  to-night,  proud  to  share  the  honor  of  emulating  your 
example.  If  you  can  deem  it  an  act  worthy  of  the  last  hour  of  your 
illustrious  life,  to  give  the  sanction  of  your  presence  to  the  object  of  this 
meeting,  well  may  we  rally  to  your  support,  receive  your  counsels,  and 
carry  them  into  effect. 

The  object  of  the  meeting  must  touch  the  hearts  of  all  who  have  list 
ened  to  the  sad  story  which  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  (Dr.  HOWE) 
has  related.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  it  to  be  true.  The  scene  is  laid  in 
Boston,  and  it  refers  to  an  act  of  inhumanity,  which  it  is  difficult  to  im 
agine  should  have  been  attempted  here.  The  parties  to  the  transaction 
are  our  fellow-citizens,  and  the  offence  charged  upon  them  seems  to  be 
the  last,  which  could  have  been  committed  by  a  Boston  shipmaster  and 
a  Boston  merchant.  The  sufferer  is  a  poor,  helpless,  homeless  fellow- 
being,  who  committed  an  error  in  supposing  that  a  slave  ivould  be  free 
in  Massachusetts,  and  might  be  sure  of  Christian  treatment  in  Boston. 

The  unfortunate  sufferer  was  a  negro  slave.  He  sighed  for  liberty, 
and  who  condemns  the  impulse  of  his  nature  ?  Conscious  that  he  was 
a  man,  he  felt  himself  entitled  to  the  rights  of  a  man,  and  resolved  that 
he  would  make  a  hazardous  effort  to  obtain  them  ;  and  who  blames  him 
that  he  should  conceive  and  execute  such  a  purpose  ?  I  learn  that  some 
\vhose  opinions  are  respected,  express  the  opinion  that  he  should  have 
voluntarily  remained  a  slave  ;  that  it  was  his  only  duty  to  "  obey  his 
master,"  to  hug  his  chains,  to  bare  his  back  to  the  lash,  to  extinguish 
the  desire  for  a  change  of  condition,  to  cease  to  regard  human  rights  as 
any  thing  for  him  ;  and  that  because  lie  aspired  to  a  better  fate,  he  should 
not  be  an  object  of  our  sympathy,  and  that  humanity  and  Christianity 


APPENDIX. 


do  not  plead  in  his  behalf.  Repulsive,  heart-chilling,  unavoidably  in 
sincere  as  is  this  suggestion,  let  whoever  utters  it  consult  his  conscience, 
or  "behold  in  a  mirror,"  the  man  who  will  tell  him  what  he  thinks  of 
it— it  is  the  only  pretext  whereby  the  conclusion  can  be  resisted,  that  the 
escape  of  a  slave  from  slavery  is,  in  itself,  an  act  to  be  approved,  the 
exercise  of  an  indisputable  right,  and,  under  suitable  circumstances,  the 
discharge  of  a  manifest  duty.  I  care  not,  Mr.  President,  from  what 
source,  however  respectable,  this  suggestion  may  proceed ;  but  before 
you,  and  in  Faneuil  Hall,  I  am  compelled  to  assert,  that  a  slave,  present 
ing  himself  here,  and  claiming  to  be  a  freeman,  would  deserve  to  meet, 
as  he  would  be  sure  to  meet,  the  sympathy  and  admiration  of  every 
true  man  amongst  us.  The  free  citizens  of  the  slave-holding  States, 
may  take  a  different  view  of  their  relation  to  their  slaves ;  but  we  of 
Massachusetts  owe  it  to  our  known  political  and  religious  principles — 
and  the  slave-holding  States  should  be  so  advised — to  consider  the  slaves, 
equal  with  the  masters,  as  our  countrymen,  as  our  fellow-beings,  and  as 
entitled  amongst  us  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  any  other  country 
men,  or  any  other  fellow-beings.  Some  may  scruple  to  sanction  this  de 
claration  ;  but  I  make  it  unhesitatingly,  and  I  came  here,  to-night,  as  far 
as  this  case  will  allow  me,  to  act  upon  it.  It  is  a  declaration  in  conform 
ity  to  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the  laws  and  the  judicial  decisions  of  Massa- 
sachusetts  ;  and  never  as  a  citizen,  as  a  Christian,  or  as  a  man,  shall  1  be 
prevailed  upon  to  abjure  it. 

The  sufferer  was  a  slave  from  no  other  part  of  the  world  than  our  own 
country.  This  is  the  fatal  fact  which  has  caused  the  guilt  and  the  dis 
grace  of  the  criminal  acts  in  which  our  fellow-citizens  have  participated. 
Had  he  been  a  slave  from  Cuba  or  Brazil,  had  he  been  a  serf  from  Rus 
sia,  had  he  been  a  fugitive  from  the  oppression  not  yet  extirpated  from 
British  India,  had  he  been  a  human  being  presenting  himself  in  any 
other  character  than  that  of  an  American  slave,  the  sailor's  heart  would 
have  warmed  towards  him  upon  the  passage,  the  merchant's  purse  would 
have  been  open  to  him  upon  his  landing,  the  voice  of  welcome  and  the 
hand  of  relief  would  have  met  him  every  where  in  our  streets,  and 
Boston  would  have  proved  to  him  a  Christian  city.  In  one  word,  had  he 
been  a  slave,  and  not  our  countryman,  he  would  have  been  treated  as 
well  as  if  he  were  our  countryman,  but  not  a  slave.  This  shows  us, 
Mr.  President,  what  American  slavery  has  "  done  for  us,"  in  one  of  its 
effects  upon  our  principles,  our  character,  and  our  conduct.  The  "suf 
fering  man"  from  the  ^  farthest  pole"  may  become  or  be  deemed  "  our 
neighbor,"  and  be  treated  as  such  ;  but  as  for  the  slave,  who  is  "  near 
home  " — our  very  countryman — he  must  learn,  and  the  Christian  world 
must  learn  from  his  fate,  that  our  patriotism  forbids  us  to  have  any  hu 
manity  or  Christianity,  and  that  our  laws  are  but  a  mockery,  for  Mm. 
Except  so  far  as  the  proceedings  of  this  meeting  shall  forbid  such  a  con 
struction,  Boston,  with  all  her  pride  and  fame,  must  expect,  and  must 
be  understood,  of  her  own  choice,  to  consent  to  be  thus  judged  and  con 
demned  for  her  direct  and  potential  support  of  American  slavery. 

The  sufferer  in  this  case  is  a  negro.    I  know  full  well  the  force  of  the 
antipathy  to  which,  on  board  ship  and  on  shore,  this  fact  has  subjected 
him.     Could  he  have  been  a  white  man,  although  a  slave,  his  fate  might 
2 


10  APPENDIX. 

have  been  different.  But  it  is  hard  for  us  to  do  the  negro  justice.  I  fee! 
the  severity  of  the  rebuke  that  it  scarcely  becomes  us  to  complain  that 
negroes  are  enslaved  at  the  South,  until  they  shall  be  treated  more  like 
freemen  at  the  North.  I  understand  the  difficulties  arising  from  preju 
dice  which  resist  all  efforts  to  ameliorate  their  condition  here.  I  have 
felt  the  difficulty  of  eradicating  this  prejudice.  I  am  aware  how  hard 
it  is  to  reconcile  any  physiological  theory,  however  demonstrable,  which 
disproves  the  original  distinction  of  races,  to  our  desire  and  determina 
tion  to  regard  the  negro  as  essentially  inferior  to  the  white  man.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  still  the  conclusion  is  irresistible — the  judgement,  the  heart, 
the  conscience,  all  sustain  it — that  negroes  are,  as  much  as  any  of  us, 
men — physically,  intellectually,  and  morally,  men — that  their  degrada 
tion  may  be  the  result  of  unnatural  rather  than  natural  laws — and  that 
since  the  Providence  of  God  has  placed  them  amongst  us,  we  are  re 
sponsible  to  God  if  we  fail  to  extend  to  them  the  benefit  of  our  political 
and  social  institutions,  and  to  exert  all  the  humane  and  Christian  influ 
ences,  which  can  promote  the  improvement  of  the  individual,  and  the 
advancement  of  the  race.  The  negro,  let  him  have  been  freeman  or 
slave,  be  he  neighbor  or  be  he  stranger, — so  long  as  he  is  amongst  us,  is 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  any  white  citizen  ; — and,  as 
Republicans,  we  belie  the  principles  of  our  government,  and  fail  to  main 
tain  the  Constitution  and  laws,  if  we  suffer  the  protection,  which  is  afford 
ed  to  others,  to  be  withheld  from  him, 

We  meet,  then,  to  consider  our  duty  in  the  clear  case  of  illegal,  in 
human,  and  unchristian  treatment,  to  which  this  American  slave  and 
negro  has  been  subjected.  By  fraud  and  force  he  has  been  abducted 
from  the  streets  of  Boston,  and  he  is  already  far  beyond  the  reach  of 
our  sympathy,  where  neither  our  wishes  nor  our  efforts  can  afford  him 
any  relief.  Under  the  charge  of  the  second  Boston  shipmaster,  who  has 
made  himself  an  accomplice  in  the  crime,  he  is  on  his  way  back  to  New 
Orleans,  to  meet  the  fate  which  there  awaits  the  runaway  slave.  We 
may  imagine  the  heavy  heart,  the  disappointed  hopes,  the  bitter  grief 
with  which  he  turned  his  last  look  on  Boston,  as  he  felt  that  all  which 
Boston  had  done  for  him  was  to  enforce  the  laws  of  Louisiana  rather 
than  those  of  Massachusetts  ;  and  that  what  his  Louisiana  owner  dare 
not  have  attempted,  and  could  not  have  accomplished  through  any  agent 
known  to  be  such,  a  Boston  merchant  and  Boston  shipmasters  had  vol 
unteered,  illegally  and  clandestinely,  to  accomplish  in  his  behalf.  Such, 
truly,  Mr.  President,  is  the  revolting  aspect  of  the  facts  of  the  case,  and 
deep  is  the  disgrace  which  must  over-shadow  the  fair  fame  of  Boston,  so 
far  as  the  mass  of  her  citizens  shall  not  promptly  avow  their  abhorrence 
of  this  outrage,  and  adopt  effectual  measures  to  prevent  its  recurrence. 

I  find  it  difficult  to  refer  to  the  conduct  of  Capt.  HANNUM  in  terms  of 
modified  censure.  What  can  have  induced,  or  who  can  have  advised 
him  to  write  the  letter  which  we  have  read  in  the  newspapers,  I  am  at 
a  loss  to  conjecture.  A  more  disgraceful  exposure  of  bad  motives,  and 
of  the  consciousness  of  guilt,  was  never  coupled  with  the  attempt  to  jus 
tify  misconduct.  J  could  pity  Captain  Hannum  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart,  if  his  letter  did  not  compel  me  to  indulge  and  to  avow  still  another 
sentiment.  He  admits  that  he  sacrificed  his  private  principles  and  the 


APPENDIX.  11 

feelings  of  humanity ;  and  because  he  makes  such  an  admission,  and 
manifests  no  compunction  for  it,  I  shrink  not  from  assuring  him  that  such 
unprincipled  and  inhuman  conduct  is  viewed  in  its  proper  light  by  the 
insulted  community  before  whom  he  seeks  to  justify  it.  If  he  has  been 
heretofore  respectable,  free  from  reproach  in  the  relations  of  life,  a 
sailor  with  an  open  heart  and  an  open  hand,  I  do  not  fail  to  see  that  he 
has  aggravated  his  offence  by  resisting  all  the  influences,  and  stifling  all 
the  impulses,  which  must  have  dissuaded  him  from  it. 

That  I  may  expose  what  it  is  manifest  was  the  motive  which  influenced 
Capl.  HANNUM  in  this  transaction,  let  me  say  that  I  doubt  not  that  he  de 
served  his  previous  reputation.  I  dare  say,  that  in  all  ordinary  trials,  he 
might  have  proved  himself  a  just,  generous,  and  disinterested  man.  Had 
the  poor  negro,  who  sought  protection  in  the  hold  of  his  vessel,  have 
approached  him  upon  a  plank  on  the  ocean  in  the  height  of  a  storm,  I 
dare  say  the  Captain  would  have  sprung  spontaneously  to  his  relief,  and, 
at  any  hazard  to  his  own  life,  would  have  saved  the  life  of  the  negro, 
and  would  have  bestowed  upon  him  all  the  care  which  his  necessities  re 
quired.  To  have  done  less  than  this,  under  such  circumstances,  would 
not  satisfy  the  law  of  the  sailor's  nature,  and  the  Captain,  who,  in  the 
presence  of  his  crew,  should  refrain  from  doing  thus  much,  would  cease 
to  be  respected,  or  trusted,  or  obeyed.  I  dare  say  that  Capt.  Hannum 
might  have  proved  himself  capable  of  performing  any  of  the  ordinary 
virtues,  which  are  demanded  by  public  sentiment,  and  involve  no  pecu 
niary  sacrifice;  but  he  could  not  abide  a  trial,  which  required  the  per 
formance  of  a  duty  involving  such  a  sacrifice — plain  enough  to  his  con 
science  when  he  thought  he  might  escape  from  it  without  a  loss  of 
money,  or  a  loss  of  reputation.  With  all  his  Yankee  shrewdness,  and 
even  if  he  has  employed  others  to  make  the  calculation  for  him,  he  has 
sadly  deceived  himself,  or  been  deceived,  as  to  the  result ;  he  may  have 
saved  his  money  for  a  time — he  has  lost  his  reputation  forever.  The 
poor  negro,  as  he  was  brought  upon  deck  into  the  Captain's  presence, 
could  feel  his  life  to  be  as  safe  as  if  he  had  been  rescued  from  the  ocean  ;  it 
was  his  liberty  that  was  in  danger,  and  that  was  only  in  danger  because 
the  Captain  could  not  secure  him  his  liberty — or  rather  could  not  desist 
from  depriving  him  of  it — without  a  pecuniary  sacrifice,  which,  for  the 
sake  of  a  negro's  liberty, he  was  not  willing  to  incur.  Nay,  so  little  did 
he  value  a  negro's  liberty,  and  so  little  did  he  regard  legal  or  moral  re 
sponsibility,  when  it  might  cost  him  something  to  refrain  from  violating 
law  and  justice,  his  private  principles  and  the  feelings  of  humanity  in 
behalf  of  a  negro  slave,  that  he  recklessly  spurned  them  all,  in  open 
day  committed  an  offence,  which,  if  he  shall  be  convicted  of  it,  must 
immure  him  in  the  State  Prison  ;  and  he  now  stands  before  the  community, 
to  be  "looked  at,"  and  remembered,  as  he  deserves. 

Mr.  President,  the  pirate  who,  stimulated  by  cupidity,  roams  the  ocean 
in  quest  of  plunder,  and  destroys  countless  lives  in  the  accomplishment 
or  concealment  of  his  object,  and  the  African  slave-trader,  who,  for  the 
sake  of  gain,  subjects  his  victims,  by  hundreds  and  by  thousands,  to  the 
horrors  of"  the  middle  passage,"  and  the  cruel  bondage  which  succeeds 
it,  are  guilty  of  no  other  moral  offence  than  that  of  sacrificing  to  the 
insatiable  demands  of  such  a  motive,  their  "  private  principles  and  the 


12  APPENDIX. 

feelings  of  humanity ;"  and  Capt.  Hannum,  while  he  differs  from  them 
in  restricting  himself  within  what  he  supposed  to  be  the  pale  of  public 
endurance,  describes  the  nature  of  his  offence  in  the  very  terms,  which 
are  sufficient  to  characterize  their  detestable  misdeeds. 

I  am  aware  that  I  am  called  upon  by  Capt.  Hannum  to  excuse  or  pal 
liate  his  offence  upon  the  ground  that  he  acted  by  the  authority,  and 
under  the  instructions  of  his  owners.  He  was,  however,  their  voluntary 
agent ;  and  it  does  not  appear  from  the  tone  of  his  letter  that  he  felt  or 
expressed  any  scruple  in  executing  their  wishes,  or  that  he  did  any  act 
to  relieve  himself  from  the  full  measure  of  the  responsibility  to  which  I 
have  held  him.  Still  I  perceive,  upon  his  statement,  that  his  owners 
voluntarily  and  gratuitously  assumed  a  still  higher  responsibility — that  is 
to  say,  as  I  estimate  their  responsibility,  in  reference  to  the  higher  posi 
tion  which  they  occupy,  and  the  greater  influence  which  their  example 
must  exert.  They  are  Boston  merchants  ;  and,  as  swcA,  while  the  un 
fortunate  shipmaster  may  be  unnoticed  and  forgotten,  they  must  remain 
the  conspicuous  objects  of  public  attention  ;  and  it  should  be  expected  of 
them,  in  a  transaction  like  that  under  consideration,  to  maintain  unsullied 
their  own  honor,  and  not  to  hazard  the  reputation  of  the  class  with  which 
they  are  associated. 

Mr.  President,  I  approach  this  part  of  the  case  with  peculiar  sensibili 
ty  ;  for  I  am  a  merchant.  I  know  that  the  occupation  of  a  merchant 
need  not  be  otherwise  than  an  useful  and  honorable  one,  and  that  it  has 
been  honored  by  the  character  and  conduct  of  most  of  those  who  have 
engaged  in  it.  I  know  that  the  mercantile  character  is  often  assailed  by 
unfounded  prejudices,  by  mean  and  petty  jealousies,  and  by  gross  calum 
nies  ;  and  the  fault  is  not  mine  of  having  been  backward  to  vindicate  it. 
I  know  also  that  the  character  of  the  merchant  is  not  always  unsullied, 
and  that  cases  will  occur  in  which  it  is  important  to  cause  it  to  appear 
that  the  censurable  acts  of  individuals  are  not  justified  or  extenuated  by 
the  body  at  large.  What,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  owners,  is  the  present 
case,  as  we  are  obliged  to  regard  it  upon  the  representation  of  Capt. 
Hannum  ? 

He  represents  to  his  owners  that  he  finds  on  board  his  vessel  a  fugitive 
slave,  and  asks  what  he  shall  do  with  him.  The  owners  of  the  vessel 
have  no  authority  to  act  for  the  owner  of  the  slave ;  they  have  accord 
ingly  no  more  right  to  exercise  any  forcible  control  over  that  colored 
man,  than  any  of  us  have  over  any  colored  man ;  or  any  man  whom  we 
meet  in  the  streets.  The  man,  under  the  law  of  Massachusetts,  as  soon 
as  he  is  within  its  jurisdiction,  is  free,  because  here  "  all  men  are  free 
and  equal ;"  and  under  the  severest  construction  of  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  the  United  States,  he  is  free  until  his  owner  claims  him.  Ex 
cept  restrained  by  violence,  illegal  violence,  he  will  of  course  at  once 
assert  his  liberty,  and,  as  soon  as  his  feet  touch  the  soil  of  Boston,  if  not 
safe  at  once,  under  the  protection  of  public  opinion,  he  may  soon  place 
himself  beyond  the  danger  of  pursuit.  All  this  is  well  understood  by 
Capt.  Hannum  and  his  owners.  They  understand  that  if  the  slave  is 
forcibly  detained,  it  can  only  be  done  in  violation  of  the  law  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  in  defiance  of  the  public  sentiment  of  Boston  ;  and  that, 
under  the  circumstances,  they  make  themselves  as  much  responsible,  le- 


APPENDIX.  13 

gaily  and  morally,  for  reducing  him  to  slavery,  as  if  they  had  kidnapped 
one  of  our  native  colored  citizens,  and  by  a  similar  act  of  violence  had 
confined  him  on  board  their  vessel,  and  sent  him  to  New  Orleans  to  be 
delivered  to  a  slave-dealer.  If  the  case  had  thus  terminated  with  the 
confinement  of  the  negro  on  board  the  vessel,  and  all  the  proceedings  of 
the  master  had  been  sustained  and  authorized  by  the  owners,  the  legal 
crime  and  the  moral  offence,  in  all  their  fiagrancy,  would  clearly  have 
been  committed,  and  the  owners  would  have  been  responsible  ;  but  it  is 
necessary  to  state  that  the  subsequent  incidents,  all  which  must  be  sup 
posed  to  have  occurred  with  their  knowledge  and  sanction,  greatly  aggra 
vate  their  guilt. 

The  poor  negro  is  not  retained  on  board  the  vessel ;  but  before  the 
vessel  is  brought  to  the  wharf,  he  is  sent,  under  the  charge  of  keepers, 
to  an  island  in  the  harbor,  with  the  purpose  of  confining  him  there,  until 
another  vessel  shall  be  ready  to  receive  and  transport  him  to  New  Or 
leans.  All  this  is  done  illegally  ;  it  is,  in  the  view  of  the  law,  and  in 
its  moral  aspect,  a  crime  ;  and  the  owners  of  the  vessel  sanction  and  au 
thorize  it.  Fortunately,  the  poor  negro  succeeds  in  escaping  from  his 
keepers,  and,  quitting  the  island,  he  reaches  the  main  shore,  and  pre 
sents  himself,  a  stranger  and  a  freeman,  in  the  streets  of  Boston.  Could 
he  have  had  time  to  make  himself  known,  to  implore  the  aid  of  the  city 
police,  to  lay  his  case  before  a  magistrate,  the  owners  or  their  agents 
would  not  have  dared  to  touch  a  hair  of  his  head,  and  in  shame,  as  well 
as  lear,  they  would  have  shrunk  from  the  prosecution  of  their  design. 
But  unfortunately — most  unfortunately — the  captain  was  upon  his  track, 
and  representing  him  to  the  few  by-standers,  who  were  collected  at  the 
instant,  as  one  of  his  crew  whom  he  was  apprehending  as  a  thief,  he 
succeeded  in  diverting  their  sympathies,  in  once  more  seizing  his  victim, 
in  hurrying  him  on  board  a  boat,  and,  by  keeping  the  boat  at  sea,  in  cut 
ting  off  any  other  chance  of  escape,  while  at  the  same  time  the  negro 
was  removed  beyond  the  reach  of  any  assistance  from  the  shore.  This 
act  made  the  captain  for  the  second  time  a  kidnapper,  in  the  full  mean 
ing  of  the  law,  and  in  all  the  enormity  of  the  crime  ;  and  his  guilt,  by 
their  justification  of  the  act,  the  owners  have  voluntarily  undertaken  to 
share  with  him. 

Whether  or  not  the  captain  incurred  any  further  responsibility,  I  do 
not  distinctly  understand  ;  but  what  strikes  me  as  by  far  the  most  culpa 
ble  conduct  of  the  owners  remains  to  be  exposed.  Sufficient  time  had 
now  elapsed  to  dispel  the  secrecy  in  which  the  foul  transaction  had  been 
involved ;  it  had  become  known  that  an  attempt  was  thus  in  progress  to 
deprive  a  man  of  his  legal  rights,  and  all  the  facts  of  the  case  were 
rapidly  ascertained  ;  the  popular  sympathy  was  deeply  excited  ;  the 
proper  spirit  of  Boston  was  exhibited;  and,  as  should  have  been  done, 
the  first  attempt  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferer  was  an  application  to  the 
highest  legal  tribunal  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  release  him  from  the 
illegal  custody  in  which  he  was  detained  ly  the  direction  of  the  owner. 
The  aid  of  the  law  was  promptly  afforded  ;  an  officer  was  charged  with 
the  execution  of  the  process;  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  owners  to  suffer 
the  law  to  take  effect  ;  without  their  interference  to  prevent  it,  the  law 
would  haoe  taken  effect,  and  have  rescued  the  negro  from  his  captivity  ; 


14  APPENDIX. 

and  they  took  it  upon  themselves  to  obstruct  the  execution  of  the  law,  to 
deprive  a  fellow  being  of  the  privilege  of  habeas  corpus,  to  set  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  Commonwealth  at  defiance,  to  contemn  public  opinion, 
and  to  glory  in  the  shame  of  succeeding  in  so  base  a  design.  The  poor 
negro  was  kept  on  board  his  floating  prison  until  these  owners  could  des 
patch  another  ship,  which  they  were  loading  for  New  Orleans  ;  a  steam 
boat  was  employed  to  tow  the  ship  against  a  head  wind  beyond  the  juris 
diction  of  Massachusetts,  and  while  the  officer  of  justice  is  almost  suc 
ceeding  in  his  last  attempt  to  overtake  the  boat,  from  which  he  might 
rescue  the  negro,  the  agents  of  the  perpetrators  of  injustice  are  thrust 
ing  him  on  board  the  ship,  whose  private  signal  declares  to  Boston,  and 
will  soon  declare  to  New  Orleans,  who  are  the  owners  that  thus  prefer  to 
sacrifice  their  character  in  Boston,  rather  than  to  endanger  their  interests 
in  New  Orleans. 

Mr.  President,  I  know  that  I  cannot  be  under  the  slightest  possible  in 
fluence  of  ill  will  against  the  owners  to  whom  I  have  thus  referred.  So 
far  as  I  know  them  personally,  I  have  no  reason  to  think  or  speak  unfa 
vorably  of  them  ;  so  far  as  I  have  had  slight  transactions  in  business  with 
them,  I  have  found  them  accommodating,  liberal,  and  honorable.  Let 
them  have  the  full  benefit  of  the  reputation  they  have  acquired  ;  but  let 
them  not  expect — let  none  venture  to  claim  in  their  behalf,  that  when, 
for  the  sake  of  mercantile  gains,  or  a  mercantile  standing  abroad,  (or 
from  the  influence  of  any  motive  which  can  be  conjectured,)  they  have 
thought  nothing  of  what  was  due  to  their  character  at  home,  and  have 
not  scrupled  (through  the  authorized  acts  of  their  agents)  to  violate  the 
laws,  to  evade  and  obstruct  the  execution  of  legal  processes,  to  make 
themselves  instrumental  in  depriving  a  human  being  of  the  liberty  to 
which  he  had  become  entitled,  and  to  scoff  at  the  feelings  and  efforts  of 
such  as  had  compassion  on  him ;  that  they  have  enough  of  reputation 
left  to  shield  them  from  the  consequences  of  such  glaring  misconduct. 
Let  them  not  suppose  that  they  can  be  irresponsible  to  public  opinion,  or 
that  they  can  hold  up  their  heads  as  before,  without  meeting  in  the  coun 
tenance  of  every  honest  man  an  expression  of  the  sentiments  of  aver 
sion  and  disgust,  which  their  proceedings  must  have  excited.  Let  them 
be  made  to  feel — if  a  virtuous  self-respect  has  wrought  this  result  in  the 
community — that  they  stand  alone  in  the  low  estimate  which  they  place 
upon  the  public  duty  of  Boston  merchants  and  citizens  of  Massachusetts, 
when  the  claims  of  humanity  are  brought  into  competition  with  their 
private  interests. 

I  abstain  from  any  farther  consideration  of  the  details  of  this  unfortu 
nate  transaction,  and  I  have  said  what  my  duty  seems  to  require  of  the 
parties  principally  concerned  in  it.  I  do  not  desire  to  wreak  upon  them 
any  public  or  private  vengeance  and  I  am  happy  to  perceive  that  such 
is  not  the  purpose  of  this  meeting.  Let  them  be  saved  from  the  State 
Prison  ;  let  them  remain  unharmed  in  the  positions  which  they  occupy  ; 
let  them  be  treated  only,  as,  in  the  moral  judgment  of  the  community, 
they  deserve  ;  but  let  not  the  memory  of  the  transactions  be  obliterated, 
until  it  .shall  cease  to  be  useful  as  an  effectual  warning  to  others. 

I  cannot  and  ought  not  to  conclude,  without  adverting  once  more  as 
every  one  must  do,  in  his  thoughts  upon  the  subject,  to  the  primary  cause 


APPENDIX.  15 

of  the  wrongs  which  have  been  suffered  in  this  case.  We  shall  not  have 
learned  the  lesson  which  the  case  seems  to  have  been  designed  to  incul 
cate,  unless  it  fixes  our  attention  anew  upon  our  exposure  to  ike  evils  of 
SLAVERY,  and  our  responsibility  for  their  continuance.  Our  commercial 
intercourse  with  the  ports  of  the  slave-holding  States  is  now  clogged  by 
regulations,  which  make  it  almost  impossible  for  those  who  continue  in 
the  trade,  to  exonerate  themselves  from  an  actual,  a  direct,  a  constant 
participation  in  the  support  of  slavery.  The  captain  and  the  merchants 
implicated  in  the  present  case,  if  they  had  not  felt  that  their  business  de 
pended  upon  it,  would  have  had  no  desire  to  retain  and  return  the  slave ; 
but  they  saw  that  it  was  for  their  interest  to  signalize  their  devotion  to 
ihe  interests  of  the  slave  owner,  and,  with  this  view,  they  were  scrupu 
lously  considerate  of  the  laws  of  Louisiana,  while  they  sought  to  evade, 
and  dared  openly  to  resist,  the  laws  of  Massachusetts. 

The  fact  is  but  too  plain,  that,  unless  Northern  shipmasters  and  mer 
chants  will  connive  at  and  will  assist  in  executing  all  the  harsh  and  hate 
ful  measures  which  are  prescribed  for  preventing  the  escape  of  slaves, 
and  for  arresting  and  returning  fugitives,  and  will  tacitly  submit  to  the 
still  more  odious  regulations  by  which  our  own  free  colored  citizens,  with 
out  any  imputation  or  suspicion  of  crime,  are  violently  abducted  from  our 
vessels,  thrown  into  prison,  and  some  of  them  in  the  end  actually  sold  as 
slaves,  slavery  will  be  scarcely  able  to  sustain  itself  in  any  of  the  South 
ern  seaports.  In  view  of  this  state  of  things,  I  can  see  much  good,  mixed 
with  evil,  in  the  results  of  the  case  before  us.  It  will  open  the  eyes  of 
the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  the  danger  and  the  guilt  of  a  silent  and 
passive  co-operation  with  such  of  her  citizens  as  are  practically  commit 
ted  to  the  support  of  slavery.  It  will  arouse  the  public  conscience,  and 
insure  the  vigorous  action  of  public  opinion  upon  every  occurrence  which 
involves  the  sacrifice  of  human  liberty.  It  will  make  it  certain  that  no 
shipmaster,  no  merchant,  no  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  will  hereafter  ven 
ture,  in  the  support  of  slavery,  to  disregard  and  violate  the  laws  of  his 
own  State.  Occurring,  too,  in  connection  with  the  political  and  religious  !; 
proceedings,  which  are  rapidly  converging  to  the  same  general  issue,  it  i 
will  help  to  make  it  manifest  that  OPPOSITION  TO  SLAVERY  is  henceforth  • 
to  be  regarded  as  a  political  and  religious  duty,  no  longer  to  be  question-  j 
ed,  no  longer  to  be  shunned,  no  longer  to  be  postponed,  but  a  <iuty  to  be 
at  once  faithfully,  deliberately,  and  resolutely  performed. 

Let  us  congratulate  ourselves,  Mr.  President  and  fellow  citizens,  that 
the  sentiment  of  opposition  to  slavery  is  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people  of  Massachusetts.  With  us,  indeed,  it  is  an  hereditary  senti 
ment,  which  has  descended  to  us  as  the  heirs  of  the  love  of  liberty  of  the 
Puritans,  and  of  the  uncorrupted  patriotism  of  the  sages  of  the  revolu 
tion.  Taught  in  our  schools,  and  sanctioned  in  our  churches,  it  is  iden 
tified  with  our  moral  and  religious  principles.  Thus  instinct  with  spirit 
ual  life,  no  party  influence,  no  combination  of  interests,  no  apprehension 
of  consequences,  can  prove  sufficient  to  extinguish  it ;  and  it  becomes 
all  whom  it  concerns  to  heed  the  assurance  that  while  Plymouth  Rock 
stands  or  a  voice  can  be  heard  in  Faneuil  Hall,  MASSACHUSETTS  WILL 

MAINTAIN  AND  AVOW  THIS  SENTIMENT. 


16  APPENDIX. 

In  accordance  with  the  demands  of  the  assembly,  the  audience  were 
next  addressed  by  WENDELL  PHILLIPS,  who  said, 

I  can  say  with  truth,  that  it  is  with  reluctance  that  I  come  upon  this 
platform  this  evening.  With  reluctance,  interested  as  I  am  in  the  sub 
ject  which  calls  you  to  Faneuil  Hall.  For  much  as  I  admire,  and 
deeply  as  I  respect  the  principles  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  occupied 
the  platform  before  me  this  evening,  and  who  have  presented  to  this 
meeting  the  resolutions  which  have  been  read  from  it,  I  acknowledge, 
Mr.  Chairman,  that  those  resolutions  do  not,  in  my  opinion,  come  up  to 
(he  tone,  which  should  be  heard  from  Faneuil  Hall  on  this  occasion. 
And  it  was,  Sir,  with  a  reluctance  to  obtrude  my  own  views  and  dif 
ferences  of  opinion  upon  men  who  deserve  the  enthusiastic  admira 
tion  of  this  community,  and  who  have  the  confidence  of  it  upon  this 
subject  and  upon  others,  that  [  came  upon  the  platform  to-night.  Sir, 
if  I  understood  those  resolutions,  they  went  to  this  extent  —  that  we 
would  exert  every  nerve  to  secure  to  the  slave,  who  had  once  set  his 
foot  upon  the  soil  of  Massachusetts,  all  the  rights  which  the  laws  secure 
to  him.  Sir,  I  go  further  than  that.  Deeply  as  I  detest  the  man  who 
said  that  he  sacrificed  his"  feelings  of  humanity  and  his  principles  to  the 
laws  of  Louisiana,"  what  shall  I  say  of  the  man,  who,  knowing  that 
that  slave,  by  the  fact  of  a  common  humanity,  had  a  right  to  demand  of 
us,  not  only  that  we  should  out-look  the  countenance  of  the  slave-own 
er,  but  that  we  should  drive  him  indignantly  from  the  soil  of  Massa 
chusetts — shall  yield  "humanity,  feelings,  and  principles"  to  the  laws  of 
Massachusetts  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  wish  to  say  one  word  on  what  I  think  will  be  found 
to  be  the  practical  result  of  the  law  in  this  case,  in  the  city  of  Boston. 
I  do  not  share  in  the  confidence  with  which  people  appeal  to  the  anti-sla 
very  feeling  of  Massachusetts  ;  I  have  labored  some  years  in  the  cause 
of  Anti-Slavery  here,  and  I  know  how  little  of  depth  or  truth  there  is  in 
the  anti-slavery  professions  that  we  hear  from  the  community  around  us. 
We  are  called  upon,  in  the  emphatic  words  of  one  of  my  predecessors, 
"  to  do  and  not  to  say."  Sir,  if  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  Massachu 
setts  had  been  what  we  sometimes  flatter  ourselves  that  it  is,  who  would 
have  dared,  upon  the  soil  of  this  state,  so  to  have  outraged  the  laws  of 
Massachusetts? 

Mr.  President,  does  any  man  deny  that  if  Capt.  Hannum  had  had  in 
his  pocket  a  piece  of  paper  signed  by  the  master  of  that  slave,  all  the 
men  of  Massachusetts  could  not  have  hindered  him  from  carrying  the 
slave  back  according  to  law  ?  I  believe  that  that  is  the  law  of  the  Uni- 
sed  States.  If  Capt.  Hannum  had  had  one  written  line  from  the  master 
'df  the  slave,  he  would  have  been  justified.  And  I  presume  to  doubt, 
notwithstanding  the  assurance  of  gentlemen,  I  presume  to  doubt,  whe 
ther,  if  Capt.  Hannum  shall  place  himself  within  the  reach  of  the  law, 
there  is  any  law  of  Massachusetts,  or  any  law  of  the  United  Stales,  which 
will  reach  his  case,  or  if  the  sober  second  thought  of  the  public  opinion 
will  not  give  him  a  verdict. 

Why  do  I  make  these  statements  here,  which  may  seem  to  embarrass 
the  meeting  ?  Because  I  think  this  is  the  occasion  to  awaken  the  people 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  full  strength  of  the  mighty  social  evil  in  which 


APPENDIX.  IT 

they  live,  and  point  out  to  them  not  only  the  abuses  to  which  it  may  be 
subject,  but  the  contempt  and  inefficiency  to  which  it  reduces  the  law  ; 
and  then  say  to  them,  Are  these  the  laws  and  institutions  by  which  you 
will,  under  all  circumstances,  be  bound  ?  I  demand  that  they  trample 
on  such  laws.  I  know  many  will  differ  from  me  in  this — men  whose  in 
tellects  I  respect — yet  I  know  I  am  right — I  feel  with  James  Madison, 
that  u  there  are  times  when  the  heart  is  the  best  logician."  When  out 
rages  like  these  are  perpetrated,  ihen  is  the  God-given  opportunity  to 
awaken  Massachusetts  in  regard  to  the  whole  subject  of  Slavery  and  its 
laws.  At  such  times  the  community  is  aroused  and  will  listen.  In  the 
light  of  such  outrages  on  justice  and  humanity,  and  such  contempt  of 
all  law,  they  understand  and  can  appreciate  the  nature  of  the  slave 
power.  A  single  such  fact  is  worth  a  hundred  arguments.  Not  to  push 
the  general  question  now,  is  to  throw  away  our  opportunities.  I  want 
this  meeting  to  say  something  more  than  that  it  will  look  the  slave- 
hunter  out  of  Massachusetts.  When  in  James  Otis' s  time,  the  writs  of 
assistance  were  given,  and  when  afterward  the  King's  officers  landed, 
the  people  did  not  wait  to  look  the  soldiers  out  of  the  city.  Sir,  if  I  read 
that  history  aright,  on  a  certain  day  in  the  month  of  July,  1776,  there 
rolled  out  on  the  still  summer  air,  something  like  the  following : — 
"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary  for  one 
people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them  with 
another,  and  to  assume  among  the  powers  of  the  earth  the  separate  and 
equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God  entitle  them," 
&c.  In  my  opinion,  now  is  the  time  for  another  Fourth  of  July  to  roll 
out  similar  words  to  those  which  were  rolled  out  in  1776.  Sir,  I  think 
this  is  the  time  for  Faneuil  Hall  to  say  not  that  we  will  never  permit 
the  slave-hunter,  or  his  myrmidons,  or  his  agents,  to  take  up  without  le 
gal  warrant  his  slave  escaped  from  bondage,  but  to  say  that  he  shall 
not  take  him — warrant  or  no  warrant.  How  many  times  is  the  outrage 
to  be  repeated  before  the  sons  of  those  who  "  snuffed  oppression  in  the 
tainted  breeze"  are  aware  of  the  crisis.  Sir,  it  has  been  said  here  to 
night,  that,  when  the  poor  fellow  was  discovered,  all  he  asked  was  that  it 
should  not  be  told  to  the  captain  till  he  reached  our  city  of  Boston.  Bos 
ton — there  was  a  magic  influence  in  that  word.  He  had  wound  in  the 
very  chords  of  his  heart  the  venerated  name  of  that  spot,  to  reach  which 
he  thought  would  be  safety.  I  can  sympathize  with  him,  as  he  goes  back 
over  the  water.  And  as,  my  eye  fixed  upon  that  accursed  barque  which 
now  bears  him  back  to  slavery,  I  stood  here  to-night  and  calculated  the 
value  of  the  Union,  1  said,  the  Union  is  nothing  to  me,  compared  with 
the  knowledge  that  it  has  contributed  to  send  that  one  sufferer  back  to 
bondage.  I  believe,  in  solemn  truth,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  citizens  of 
Massachusetts  to  say  thus  much  to  our  sister  states.  Let  us  abjure  the 
Union  and  stand  alone,  so  that  thus  we  may  be  free."  It  is  idle  to  say, 
now,  that  this  thing  and  that  thing  is  unconstitutional.  Constitution, — 
Mr.  President,  I  abjure  the  word — there  is  no  constitution  in  this  coun 
try,  and  everybody  knows  it, — it  is  a  farce.  (The  speaker  was  here 
obliged  to  pause  for  some  time,  in  consequence  of  the  shouts  and  hisses 
in  all  parts  of  the  hall.) 

We  are  told,  Mr,  Chairman,  that  a  foreigner  once  asked  a  French- 
3 


18  APPENDIX. 

man  where  the  Salic  Law  was.     Sir,  I  need  not,  say  what  he  told  him— 
but  where  will  you  find  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  ?  Perchance 
endorsed  on  the  back  of  the  bill  of  sale  of  the  first  slave  that  you  shall 
find  in  South  Carolina. 

It  is  not  my  wish  to  obtrude  my  sentiments  upon  a  meeting  called  for 
the  purpose  of  passing  the  resolutions  now  before  them,  but  this  I  will 
say,  that  the  time  has  come  when  self-respect,  dut)  to  the  slave,  and 
duty  to  God  demand  of  us  to  announce  that,  Constitution  or  no  Constitu 
tion,  law  or  no  law,  humanity  shall  be  paramount  in  Massachusetts.  Sir, 
I  would  that  we  should  no  longer  be  contented,  as  individuals,  to  con 
ceal  the  trembling  fugitive  who  has  succeeded  in  reaching  our  bor 
ders,  or  to  buy  back  the  man,  the  sight  of  whose  misery  has  roused  our 
pity,  but  that  Massachusetts  herself,  in  her  sovereign  capacity,  should 
proclaim  that  no  slave-hunter  should  hereafter  set  foot  on  her  soil,  and 
proclaim  it  in  a  tone  so  loud  that  it  should  reach  every  hovel  in  the 
Carolinas,  and  make  the  broken-hearted  bondman  leap  up  at  the  very 
sound  of  her  name.  The  State  has  long  enough  pledged  its  physical 
force  on  the  side  of  the  oppressor — let  it  now  welcome  the  oppressed 
to  its  protection.  I  believe  that  there  does  exist,  as  Mr.  Phillips  has 
said,  a  deep  root  of  anti-slavery  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of 
this  Commonwealth  ;  but,  Sir,  I  cherish  that  belief  as  an  article  of  faith, 
in  which  I  believe  without  seeing  the  works  corresponding.  I  cherish 
it  as  an  article  of  faith,  and  I  hope  that  at  some  time  or  other,  many  and 
tall  branches  shall  grow  out  of  that  root.  But  until  that  take  place,  I 
shall  not  trust  in  a  public  sentiment  that  is  dormant.  I  am  not  wilting 
that  the  law  of  the  country  and  the  statute-book  of  Massachusetts  should 
leave  the  soil  of  this  Commonwealth  free  for  the  slave-hunter  to  set  his 
foot  upon.  While  it  does,  law  will  never  be  respected,  and  the  slave 
will  never  be  safe,  even  in  those  rights  which  your  law  may  try  to  se 
cure  him.  Make  the  law  worthy  of  respect,  if  you  would  have  it  re 
spected.  Make  a  clean  statute-book,  if  you  would  have  an  upright  peo 
ple.  I  hope  that  time  will  come,  and  the  only  reason  why  1  consent  to 
speak  at  all  is,  that  I  may  bear  the  testimony  of  many  years  experience 
in  this  cause. 

Within  two  months,  a  press  in  this  Commonwealth,  which  commits 
the  sacrilege  of  styling  itself  a  religious  newspaper,  dared  to  say  that 
Frederick  Douglass  was  deceiving  the  people  of  England  when  he  told 
them  that  it  was  not  safe  for  him  to  tread  the  soil  of  Massachusetts. 
His  reply  to  that  insinuation  was  worthy  of  himself — and  this  case  is  the 
commentary.  This  case  has  tested  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  Massa 
chusetts  ;  and  I  shall  be  ready  to  join  my  voice  in  the  confident  expecta 
tions  of  some  of  our  friends,  when  I  shall  hear,  not  a  simple  rebuke  to  a 
single  merchant,  but  the  voice  of  the  People  erasing  from  the  Statute- 
book  the  odious  provisions  which  made  this  outrage  possible. 

THEODORE  PARKER  then  addressed  the  mcetin^  as  follows : — 

& 

There  was  a  time  once  when  your  fathers  and  my  fathers  assembled 
here  in  Faneuil  Hall.  There  was  a  time  when  Boston  was  a  small  place  ; 
and  here  in  Boston  a  handful  of  men  passed  resolutions,  in  the  face  of 
these  columns,  which  shook  the  whole  nation.  Their  words  went  abroad, 


APPENDIX.  19 

across  the  water,  and  shook  the  parent  land.  Yes,  they  shook  the  world. 
But  now,  sir,  when  anti-slavery  resolutions  are  passed  in  this  city,  they 
cannot  be  heard  from  the  North  End  to  the  Neck.  Whence  comes  this 
difference  ?  In  old  times,  men  knew  that  behind  every  word  there  was 
a  back-ground  of  action.  Now,  men  know  that  when  political  bodies 
pass  anti-slavery  resolutions,  they  mean  nothing  ;  there  is  no  back-ground 
of  action  behind  them.  They  are  got  up  for  show ;  they  represent 
nothing  ;  they  come  out  of  nothing  ;  they  mean  nothing — and  of  course 
effect  nothing. 

In  1840,  when  the  Whig  procession  passed  through  the  streets  of  this 
city,  a  hundred  thousand  strong,  its  badges  meant  something — its  sym 
bols  and  its  resolutions  meant  something.  They  meant  a  tariff — they 
meant  dividends — they  meant  dollars.  Sir,  the  democratic  party,  great 
and  triumphant  in  its  power,  heard  those  resolutions,  and  they  trembled 
for  fear.  Yes,  they  trembled  all  over  the  land,  from  far  away  down 
East  even  to  utmost  Oregon ;  they  trembled  because  they  knew  that 
those  resolutions  would  keep,  because  they  knew  the  Whigs  would  salt 
down  with  deeds  every  word  they  uttered. 

In  1844,  the  Baltimore  Convention  assembled  and  passed  also  its  reso 
lutions,  and  the  words  meant  something.  They  meant  a  change  of  tariff 
— they  meant  the  annexation  of  Texas — they  meant  war.  And  the 
Whigs,  in  their  turn,  trembled  and  shook  in  their  shoes,  because  they 
knew  that  a  back-ground  of  action  was  behind  every  word,  and  that  the 
Democrats  would  salt  down  their  sayings,  and  they  would  keep. 

Well :  nothing  comes  of  nought — something  of  something.  Corres 
ponding  deeds  came  after  words.  The  Whigs  had  their  tariff;  had  their 
dividends  ;  had  their  dollars.  Deeds  also  come  after  Democratic  words. 
The  Democrats  had  their  change  of  tariff;  had  their  annexation,  and 
have  got  their  war. 

So  much  came  of  action  suited  to  the  word.  The  word  meant 
action. 

But  when  political  bodies  pass  their  anti-slavery  resolutions — who  is 
there  that  trembles?  The  rival  party  ?  [A  voice — "the  slave-holders!" 
another  voice — "  they  are  weak  enough  !"]  The  slave-holders  !  they 
tremble  !  Not  at  all.  Weak  as  they  are — at  the  anti-slavery  resolutions 
of  political  bodies,  I  don't  believe  a  single  slave-holder  in  the  land  ever 
trembles — unless  the  man  is,  as  they  say,  "  most  jolly  green  !" 

Well,  sir,  what  can  we  do  in  this  matter  ?  A  more  solemn  occasion 
has  very  seldom  wakened  the  arches  of  Faneuil  Hall  with  such  elo 
quence  as  we  have  heard  to-night.  Very  seldom  has  this  roof  looked 
down  upon  so  many  faces  shining  like  fires  new-stirred.  I  trust  that  you 
will  pass  those  resolutions.  They  are  good  enough,  or  bad  enough — if 
you  don't  mean  to  carry  them  out.  There  may  be  men  who  desire 
stronger  resolutions,  and  men  that  want  weaker  ones.  Let  us  take  these, 
and  stronger,  too,  if  we  can  get  them.  But  by  all  means  let  us  do  some 
thing. 

[A  voice — "  The  earthquake  is  coming."] 

Well,  the  earthquake  is  coming,  and  let  it  come.  We  know  where  it 
is  coming,  and  for  what.  Where  is  the  man  who  will  bring  Quincy 


20 


APPENDIX. 


granite,  and  brick  from  Cambridge,  and  timber  from  down  East,  and  on 
the  ground  which  already  heaves  and  bulges  and  cracks  asunder,  build 
a  superstructure  which  must  inevitably  be  crushed  by  the  earthquake  ? 

When  resolutions  are  not  notorious  as  having  a  back-ground  of  action 
behind  them,  I  care  not  how  many  such  you  pass  here  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
To  make  resolutions  tell,  you  must  do  something  more.  I  am  glad  that 
my  friend  suggested  a  Vigilance  Committee — let  that  committee  be  es 
tablished — let  it  be  forty  men  strong — let  them  keep  that  sacred  word — 
4<  Bewray  not  him  that  wandereth."  But  remember  that  your  fathers 
were  bondmen  in  the  land  of  the  oppressor,  and  "the  Lord  brought  them 
forth  with  an  high  hand  and  an  outstretched  arm,  with  great  terribleness 
and  with  signs  and  wonders  !"  Tell  them  to  open  their  houses  to  every 
runaway  slave  ;  their  purses  and  their  hearts,  say  the  laws  of  Louisiana 
or  this  Union  what  they  may. 

I  know  that  there  is  a  law,  which  they  make  up  there  in  the  State 
House,  and  can  unmake  if  they  will ;  and  that  law,  in  matters  of  expe 
diency,  it  is  very  well  to  follow.  In  such  matters  I  am  willing  to  yield 
to  that — and  count  it  "  supreme."  But  I  know,  and  you  know,  that 
above  that,  there  is  a  law  of  God  written  uopn  the  universe  and  copied 
upon  every  heart ;  a  law  which  says  thou  shalt  do  to  another  what  thou 
wouldst  gladly  receive  from  him  in  like  cases.  When  the  laws  of  Lou 
isiana,  or  Massachusetts,  or  this  Union,  conflict  with  the  law  of  God, 
there  is  but  one  thing  that  I  must  do,  and  that  is,  KEEP  GOD'S  LAW. 

I  know  men  say  "  we  are  citizens  of  this  State,  and  are  pledged  to 
keep  its  laws."  Officers  say  they  have  sworn  to  keep  the  laws  of  Mas 
sachusetts;  and  they  go  further  and  say  that  THEY  HAVE  NEVER  SWORN 
TO  KEEP  GOD'S  LAWS.  Very  true  ;  you  are  citizens  of  Massachusetts , 
citizens  of  the  United  States — subject  to  the  Laws  of  Massachusetts  and 
the  United  States.  If  you  violate  them  you  must  expect  their  penalty. 
But  you  are  also  citizens  of  the  Universe,  born  subject  to  God's  eternal 
Law.  You  are  men  first,  then  Americans.  Have  you  sworn  no  oath  to 
keep  God's  Law?  What  then — you  are  none  the  less  bound  to  keep  it. 
Every  bone  in  my  body,  every  particle  of  fibre  just  forming  in  my  blood, 
is  witness  of  my  allegiance  to  God,  of  my  duty  to  keep  His  Law.  It 
transcends  and  over-rides  all  the  statutes  of  men.  If  I  violate  that, 
knowingly,  wilfully  violate  that,  where  am  I  ?  Though  all  the  men  of 
Massachusetts,  or  the  Union,  or  the  World  stand  between  me  and  the 
Heaven,  they  cannot  screen  me  from  that  awful  justice  of  the  Most  High 
God  !  I  cannot  plead  ignorance  of  the  Right !  Its  witness  is  in  my 
own  heart.  If  I  keep  the  law  of  the  land  that  I  may  violate  the  eternal 
law  of  God,  what  excuse  have  I  ?  how  shall  HE  hold  me  guiltless  ? 

After  passing  your  Resolutions  and  choosing  your  Committee  of  Vig 
ilance,  there  is  another  thing  you  can  do.  In  the  coming  election,  you 
can  make  choice  of  men — not  tonguey  men — you  have  had  enough  of 
them — but  men  of  deeds,  whose  words  shall  be  salted  down  with  action, 
till  they  will  keep  forever.  We  have  long  enough  had  men  who  can 
make  fine  resolutions,  promise  impossible  things,  and  forget  them  all. 
Now  you  want  men  who  will  go  for  God's  Law — will  go  for  the  Right 
— come  what  will  come  ;vyou  want  such  for  your  business  here  at  home  ; 
you  want  such  for  your  business  further  off  at  Congress.  Washington 


APPENDIX.  21 

is  said  to  be  "  a  hot  place."  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason  why  we  of  the 
North  send  our  "  Dough-faces  "  there  !  For  my  part,  I  wish  Washing 
ton  was  a  great  deal  hotter  than  it  is,  for  the  men  come  back-just  as  soft 
as  they  went. 

The  North  is  not  in  earnest  on  this  terrible  question  of  Human  Rights. 
Oh,  no.  Before  your  faces,  before  the  Judge  of  hearts,  I  solemnly  say 
that  if  that  "  long,  low,  black  schooner,"  which  recently  anchored  off 
Long  Island,  in  New  York,  should  lie  off  Long  Island  in  Boston  harbor, 
and  should  take  not  one  man  but  twenty  men,  I  solemnly  believe  that 
neither  the  Whig  party  as  such,  nor  the  Democratic  party  as  such,  would 
lift  their  hands.  I  fear  that  none  of  the  respectable  party  newspapers 
would  raise  the  cry  of  indignation  to  rouse  the  slumbering  land.  I  wish 
this  may  not  be  true.  But  if  I  am  to  judge  the  future  by  the  past  or  the 
present,  it  is  indeed  so.  We  give  up  to  Party  what  is  due  to  MAN. 

I  therefore  urge  it  upon  you  to  remember  this  at  your  elections;  not 
to  choose  men  who  can  make  resolutions  that  won't  reach  to  the  Neck, 
but  men  whose  lives  show  that  they  can  be  trusted  in  times  which  try- 
men's  souls.  Remember  that  it  takes  a  pound  to  weigh  a  pound,  and  if 
you  take  a  little,  mean  man  and  put  him  in  an  office  high  as  the  top  of 
Bunker  Hill  monument,  he  will  still  be  a  little  fellow — little  and  mean. 

DR.  HOWE  stated  that  the  Committee  had  a  number  of  letters  from 
distinguished  gentlemen,  in  answer  to  the  invitation  to  be  present  on  this 
occasion,  and  he  read  a  letter  from  Governor  William  Slade  of  Ver 
mont.  This,  with  the  others,  which  were  not  read  to  the  meeting  on 
account  of  the  lateness  of  the  hoUr,  will  be  appended  to  this  report. 

The  President  now  being  much  fatigued,  called  Mr.  Stephen  C.  Phil 
lips,  one  of  the  Vice  Presidents,  to  the  Chair. 

MR.  CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS  was  then  called  upon  the  stand,  and 
remarked  as  follows: — 

Mr.  Chairman,  and  Fellow-citizens :  Nothing  but  the  call  with  which 
you  have  honored  me  to-night,  could  have  induced  me  in  this  state  of 
rny  voice,  to  come  forward  and  say  a  word.  Perhaps,  fellow-citizens, 
you  are  aware  that  within  the  last  twenty-four  hours,  some  of  us  have 
been  trying  our  voices  in  this  Hall,  and  mine  is  not  the  better  for  the 
experiment.  But,  fellow-citizens,  since  you  have  been  kind  enough  to 
request  me  to  say  a  word  upon  this  occasion,  I  can  only  say  to  you, 
that  I  come  forward  here  to-night,  not  as  a  Whig,  not  as  a  Democrat, 
not  as  a  member  of  any  party,  but  as  a  MAN.  I  come  forward  here  to 
night,  not  to  discuss  questions  of  law,  not  to  discuss  questions  of  Consti 
tution,  not  to  consider  abstract  or  possible  evils,  but  I  come  here  with  a 
purpose  stern  and  sincere  to  do  all  I  can  as  a  man  to  remedy  an  evil 
such  as  we  did  not  suppose  could  have  existed  in  this  community. 

Sir,  it  may  be  very  possible  in  any  community,  under  the  very  best 
government  that  ever  was,  that  there  should  be  instances  of  abuse,  occa 
sionally  of  a  very  gross  nature  ;  but,  Sir,  we  have  not  time  nor  disposi 
tion  to  inquire  how  all  these  things  can  be  remedied  in  the  most  effective 


22  APPENDIX. 

manner  ;  our  business  to-night  is  to  see  how  we  can  remedy  the  precise 
evil  of  which  we  complain.  And,  Sir,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  resolu 
tions  upon  your  table  will  be  likely  to  have  a  power  in  two  ways — as 
emanating  from  Faneuil  Hall ;  and,  secondly,  to  arrange  a  system  of  ac 
tion  which  shall  prevent  any  possibility  of  such  an  occasion  occurring 
hereafter. 

I  agree,  Sir,  with  several  gentlemen  who  have  spoken  before  me,  in 
regretting  exceedingly  that  such  a  letter  as  that  of  the  captain  of  the 
Ottoman,  could  have  found  an  author  in  the  city  of  Boston.  I  regret  ex 
ceedingly  the  admission,  by  a  Massachusetts  man,  that  he  considered 
the  laws  of  Louisiana  superior  to  those  of  Massachusetts.  And  so  far 
as  my  humble  aid  can  effect  it,  I  would  do  all  I  could  to  make  that  cap 
tain,  and  all  who  may  sustain  him,  know  their  duty  better.  We  hope  to 
make  it  the  voice  of  all,  that  there  is  neither  law,  nor  reason,  nor  justice, 
in  their  pretences  ;  and,  Sir,  when  we  have  arrived  at  this  point,  1  trust 
there  will  not  be  within  the  limits  of  Massachusetts,  a  citizen  who  will 
dare  to  countenance  any  such  act.  That,  Sir,  is  the  point  at  which  we 
expect  to  labor  to-night. 

But,  fellow-citizens,  you  will  perceive,  by  the  effort  with  which  I 
speak,  that  I  cannot  much  longer  continue  my  remarks.  I  therefore 
beg  leave,  in  closing,  simply  to  say  that  while,  under  a  simple  call  upon 
the  citizens  of  Boston  to  meet  in  Faneuil  Hall,  I  see  such  an  assembly 
as  this,  animated  with  the  feelings  that  inspire  this  assembly,  I  cannot 
say  that  the  State  is  lost : — I  cannot  say  that  I  despair  of  the  republic 
when  I  know  that  there  stand  here  upon  this  floor,  so  many  thousands 
who  are  ready  to  sustain  the  law,  justice,  and  humanity. 

REV.  THOMAS  T.  STONE,  of  Salem,  was  then  called  for,  and  spoke 
as  follows  : — 

Brethren,  as  I  have  stood  here  this  evening,  while  we  have  had  this 
case  presented  to  us,  that  if  a  lawyer,  or  a  man  of  any  other  occupa 
tion  had  been  in  the  position  of  this  slave,  the  feeling  of  the  entire 
community  would  have  been  aroused,  I  have  connected  with  it  another 
thought.  We  denominate  ourselves  by  the  name  of  one,  who,  a  few 
centuries  ago,  walked  the  fields  of  Judea.  Suppose  that  by  some  sin 
gular  concatenation  of  circumstances,  this  very  individual,  (and  per 
haps  his  complexion  would  not  have  been  averse  to  the  supposition,) 
that  he  had  been  the  slave  that  was  brought  here.  Suppose  that  in 
stead  of  being  Joseph,  it  had  been  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Who  is  there 
that  does  not  feel  the  tremendous  enormity  of  the  deed  ?  Every  heart 
would  have  risen  with  a  feeling  of  instinctive  horror.  And  then  I  have 
thought  of  his  own  words,  4'  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of 
the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  It  is  Jesus  Christ  who 
has  been  manacled,  and  restored  to  the  prison-house  of  slavery  !  He 
has  announced  it  in  his  own  declaration.  There  is  the  word,  and 
there  it  will  stand  for  eternity,  and  ye  who  have  given  your  counte 
nance  to  this  act,  have  given  your  countenance  to  the  enslavement  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  since  he  has  been  doomed  to  perpetual  slavery  in 
the  person  ot  the  man  whom  he  died  to  redeem.  Call  riot  this  irreve- 


APPENDIX.  23 

rence  ; — if  thus  you  call  it,  I  refer  you  to  his  own  words.  Think  of 
the  name  he  gives  himself — the  Son  of  Man.  He  knows  not  of  com 
plexions,  he  knows  not  of  the  distinctions  of  nations  and  races, — he 
knows  of  man,  and  only  man. 

I  feel  it  by  no  means  inappropriate  upon  an  occasion  so  solemn  as 
this,  to  raise  your  minds  to  his  Father  and  our  Father,  and  I  venture 
to  present  to  every  heart  an  appeal  which  cannot  be  resisted, — Is  He 
not  as  really  the  Father  of  that  slave,  who  has  been  driven  back  to  bond 
age,  as  the  Father  of  the  most  honored  individual  present,  as  the 
most  honored  citizen  of  our  country  ? — Is  He  not  the  one  Father  of 
all?  In  his  name  I  speak  to  you,  in  his  name  I  call  for  the  freedom, 
not  of  this  man  only,  but  of  every  man  in  the  American  Union,  of  ev 
ery  man  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  It  is  the  demand  of  a  higher  voice, 
and  a  higher  power,  than  speaks  from  Halls  of  Legislation  or  from  the 
Judicial  Bench.  I  utter  it  as  a  demand  from  the  common  Father  of 
all,  that  every  human  being  be  free,  that  every  fetter  be  broken.  Let 
the  voice  go  forth  till  it  shall  be  heard  beyond  the  ocean,  and  echoed 
to  the  ends  of  the  whole  earth,  Freedom  !  Freedom  !  Freedom  !  to  the 
entire  race  of  man. 

I  rejoiced  to  hear  the  grand  thoughts,  which  have  been  presented  to 
us  this  evening,  on  the  supremacy  of  the  divine  Jaw.  I  remember  that 
it  was  declared  long  ago,  "I  regard  riot  these  laws  of  tyrannous  States, 
I  reverence  and  obey  those  unfailing  and  divine  laws,  which  are  not 
of  to-day,  nor  of  yesterday,  but  whose  origin  no  eye  has  seen."  Their 
origin  is  the  bosom  of  God. 

1  have  not  time  to  go  into  an  exposition  of  the  laws  of  the  slavery 
which  exists  among  us.  I  will  only  suppose  them  to  be  a  perfect  com 
bination  for  the  perpetuity  of  slavery,  sustained  by  States  confederate, 
and  by  the  entire  voice  of  the  nation.  I  then  appeal  from  all  Constitu 
tional  power  to  the  God  who  fills  this  universal  temple  with  the  very  light 
and  life  of  freedom,  and  who  has  breathed  his  own  spirit  of  freedom  into 
every  living  soul.  I  appeal  to  the  inward  oracle  ;  I  appeal  to  the  un 
written  law  which  is  engraven  upon  my  heart  and  upon  every  heart; 
I  appeal  to  the  sacred  divinity  which  stirs  in  every  human  soul  ; — and 
that  oracle,  that  inward  and  divine  voice,  that  never  failing  witness 
which  is  speaking  from  every  tongue,  and  which  is  beaming  from  ev 
ery  true  and  living  countenance,  let  that  be  honored,  let  it  be  wor 
shipped,  let  it  be  obeyed. 

But  I  have  one  thing  further  to  add  ;  it  may  be  painful,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  it  is  a  duty  to  say  it  before  I  close.  A  speaker  has  said 
that  he  was  a  merchant  :  would  that  1  had  the  power  and  spirit  to  be  a 
true  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  in  all  institutions,  something 
which  produces  institutions,  and  in  this  community  there  is  a  power, 
which,  more  than  any  other  single  thing,  has  conduced  to  the  forma 
tion  and  continuance  of  our  institutions,  and  that  is  Christianity  as  pre 
sented  in  the  ministrations  of  its  professed  teachers.  And  I  ask,  Is  it 
possible  that  here  in  Massachusetts,  an  individual  should  be  kidnapped 
and  thrust  into  a  far  distant  slavery,  had  the  true  principles  of  Chris 
tianity  been  thoroughly  proclaimed  ? 

Mr.  Stone  continued  his  remarks  for  some  time  longer,  but  there  was 


24  APPENDIX. 

so  much    disturbance   in  the    hall,    that    it  was  impossible  to  obtain  a 
satisfactory  report  of  the  remainder. 

MR.  G.  B.  EMERSON  was  now  called  for,  and  made  the  following 
remarks  : — 

Fellow-citizens ;  I  had  only  one  single  thought  to  add  to  ihe  grave 
considerations  that  have  been  presented  to  you  this  evening.  It  seems 
to  me,  Sir,  that  there  is  one  great  cause,  deeper  than  the  cause  of  Sla 
very,  below  that,  Sir;  one  great  cause  of  slavery,  and  of  all  the  terri 
ble  evils  which  seem  to  be  coming  from  slavery.  It  is  simply  this, 
Sir.  Men  congregate  together,  and  although  every  one  standing  by 
himself  feels  that  he  has  no  right  to  call  that  wrong  which  is  right,  or 
to  call  that  right  which  is  wrong;  yet  when  they  are  assembled  to 
gether,  they  dare  to  go  up  to  the  altar  of  God,  and  say,  ''  We  pro 
nounce  this  wrong,  which  thou  hast  declared  to  be  right:  we  pro 
nounce  this  right,  which  thou  hast  declared  to  be  wrong."  The  Legis 
lature  of  Louisiana  makes  a  law — a  law  in  violation  of  the  great  truths 
made  known  to  us  from  God  himself, — and  that  law  is  considered  as 
creating  right  and  wrong;  so  that  a  citizen  of  Massachusetts  may  say, 
and  feel  that  he  has  apologized  to  humanity  by  saying,  "  I  violate  the 
principles  of  humanity,  I  violate  all  the  deep  principles  of  my  nature, 
I  violate  the  law  of  God  ;  but  I  do  it  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  man, 
to  the  law  of  Louisiana.  The  great  thought,  Sir,  is  this.  Men  sup 
pose,  legislators  suppose, — I  give  you  the  credit,  Sir,  and  I  really  be 
lieve  that  you  never  supposed  what  most  men  suppose — that  they  can, 
by  making  law,  make  right  and  wrong.  It  is  not  so.  There  are  laws 
which  God  has  made,  which  every  heart  that  beats  under  God's  heaven 
acknowledges  that  man  is  bound  to  keep,  and  all  the  legislators  under 
heaven,  congregated  together,  have  no  right  to  pronounce  that  right, 
which  God  has  declared  to  be  wrong. 

God,  sending  his  son  into  the  world,  has  declared  that  all  men  are 
equal.  He  has  said  to  each  one  of  us.  and  every  one  of  us  feels  that  it 
is  a  law  of  God,  "  Do  ye  to  others  as  ye  would  that  they  should  do  to 
you."  But  men  have  laid  aside  this  law,  and  made  a  law  of  their  own. 
And  what  is  the  consequence.  Here  is  one  consequence.  The  sim 
ple  statement  of  facts,  which  has  already  been  made,  is  enough  to  show 
the  terrible  consequence.  A  man  escapes  from  bondage,  to  what  he 
believes  to  be  liberty,  and  comes  into  this  city.  He  escapes  from  his 
concealment  on  an  island,  and  lands  here  in  South  Boston.  He  be 
lieves  himself  to  be  free,  but  on  the  road  between  Faneuil  Hall  and 
Quincy — between  this  cradle  of  Liberty  and  the  spot  where  Liberty,  if 
anywhere  under  heaven,  has  always  resided — on  the  straight  road  be 
tween  Faneuil  Hall  and  duincy,  he  is  siezed  and  carried  off  into  bond 
age.  There  is  a  simple  fact.  Nothing  that  anybody  can  say  speaks 
so  loudly  as  that  simple  fact. 

Mr.  President,  I  never  before  made  my  appearance  in  this  place.  I 
never  expected  to  address  a  public  audience  of  this  kind  :  but  when 
the  area  of  slavery  is  so  extended  that  it  embraces  the  road  between 
Faneuil  Hall  and  old  Quincy,  it  is  time  for  every  man  to  attend  to  it. 


APPENDIX.  25 

The  resolutions  were  then  submitted  to  the  assembly,  by  the  Chair, 
and  were  adopted,  almost  unanimously. 

A  Committeee  of  Vigilance,  consisting  of  forty,  was  then  nominated 
by  the  Chair,  who  were  unanimously  elected. 

On  motion,  the  thanks  of  the  meeting  were  presented  to  John  Quincy 
Adams  for  attending,  and  presiding  over  their  deliberations. 

The  business  for  which  the  assembly  was  convened  having  been 
transacted,  it  was  voted  to  dissolve. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


The  following  answers  were,  received  to  an  official  letter,  issued  by 
the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  Faneuil  Hall  meeting.  We 
earnestly  recommend  their  perusal. 


MIDDLEBURY,  (Vt.)  Sept.  21,  1846. 
S.  G.  HOWE,  ESQ.: 

Dear  Sir, — Your  letter  is  just  received,  inviting  me  to  attend  a  meet 
ing  to  be  holden  at  Faneuil  Hall,  on  the  24th  of  the  present  month,  to 
consider  as  to  measures  proper  to  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  re 
cent  outrage  on  the  rights  of  a  fugitive  from  bondage,  in  the  city  and 
harbor  of  Boston.  I  regret  to  say  that  I  cannot  be  with  you  at  the 
contemplated  meeting.  If  anything  could  draw  me  to  Boston  upon  so 
short  a  notice,  and  in  the  midst  of  pressing  engagements,  it  would  be 
your  call.  I  had  heard  of  the  outrage  upon  the  person  of  the  fugitive  ; 
but  supposed  that  the  opiate  of  slavery  had  taken  such  deep  hold  even 
upon  the  Massachusetts  mind,  that  I  should  see  no  signs  of  life.  I  am 
glad  to  find  myself  mistaken.  There  is  life;  and  I  hope  there  may  be 
so  much  vital  energy  in  your  meeting,  as  to  send  healthful  pulsations 
to  the  extremities  of  New  England.  We  are  dying  of  paralysis,  and 
want  a  charge  from  some  galvanic  battery  to  rouse  and  revive  us.  We 
have  energy  enough  in  certain  directions.  We  need,  for  example,  no 
galvanism  to  stimulate,  and  give  power  to  the  graspings  for  wealth. 
Our  sensibilities  are  ever  alive  to  the  slightest  invasion  of  the  rights  of 
property.  But  where  is  the  corresponding  sensibility  to  personal  rights? 
LIBERTY  !  How  few  think  of  it,  as  an  object  of  jealous  regard,  un 
less  their  own  is  invaded.  How  few  have  eyes  to  see  in  the  person  of 
another,  and  especially  in  the  person  of  a  man  with  "  a  skin  not  col 
ored  like  their  own,"  a  representation  in  his  essential  manhood  of  the 
human  race,  in  whose  freedom  every  one  of  the  race  has  an  interest, 
and  whose  oppression  every  one  should  feel  as  though  it  were  his  own  ! 
How  few  hearts  promptly  respond  to  the  noble  sentiment,  "  I  am  a 
MAN  ;  and  nothing  that  concerns  MAN  can  be  foreign  to  me  !" — a  sen 
timent  which  drew  forth  bursts  of  rapturous  applause,  upon  its  first 
utterance  in  a  Roman  theatre. 


APPENDIX.  27 

Much  is  said  of  abolishing  slavery  at  the  South,  though  much  less, 
in  my  judgement,  than  there  should  be  ;  but  there  is  another  kind  of 
slavery  to  be  abolished.  Your  communication  to  me  presents  an  ex 
ample  of  it  in  the  owners  of  the  vessel,  whose  enslavement  to  the  slave 
power  has  led  them  to  approve  the  act  of  their  commander,  in  kidnap 
ping,  and  forcing  into  hopeless  bondage,  a  MAN,  "  without  the  shadow 
of  legal  or  constitutional  right."  I  hope  your  meeting  will  bring  out, 
in  bold  relief,  this  kind  of  slavery,  so  that  its  distinctive  features  may 
be  seen  and  detested. 

The  occasion  of  your  meeting  will  be  a  fitting  one  to  assert  the  just 
rights  of  the  fugitive  from  slavery,  on  the  soil  of  New  England.  It 
should  be  known  and  remembered,  that  the  bare  right  of  the  slave 
holder  to  arrest  and  return  his  slave,  either  by  himself  or  a  proper  offi 
cer  of  the  United  States,  is  the  utmost  limit  of  power  over  the  panting 
fugitive,  on  New  England's  soil  ;  and  that  no  man  may  volunteer  to 
aid  in  the  cruel  work,  without  incurring  the  guilt,  and  bringing  upon 
himself,  in  full  measure,  the  punishment,  of  man-stealing.  It  is  quite 
enough  that  our  soil  must  be  desecrated,  our  feelings  outraged,  and 
our  own  liberty  put  in  jeopardy  according  to  Law.  To  add  to  the  legal 
outrage — submitted  to  only  from  a  regard  to  the  supremacy  of  law — 
the  outrage  of  forcing  back  the  innocent  bondman  to  chains  and  tor 
tures,  by  the  agency  of  volunteers,  unrecognized  by  law,  and  acting 
from  the  impulses  of  mercenary  cruelty,  is  what  cannot,  must  not  be 
submitted  to. 

The  grant  in  the  Constitution  of  a  right  to  reclaim  to  bondage  the 
fugitive,  struggling  and  panting  for  the  enjoyment  of  his  "  inalienable  " 
rights,  was  as  unjust,  as  it  was  inconsistent  with  the  fundamental  prin 
ciple  of  our  government,  and  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  I  cannot  look  at  this  feature  of  the  Constitution,  without  say 
ing,  in  the  language  of  Jefferson,  that  "  I  tremble  when  I  remember 
that  God  is  just."  There  is  not  a  groan  of  the  agonized  fugitive,  forced 
back  to  bondage,  under  the  authority  of  that  Constitution,  that  does 
not  enter  the  ears  of  Him  who  heareth  the  sighing  of  the  prisoners, 
and  whose  judgements  guilty  nations  must,  sooner  or  later,  be  made  to 
feel. 

It  is  time  that  the  nation  should  open  its  eyes  to  the  true  character 
of  this  feature  in  its  Constitutional  compact,  as  well  as  of  that  other 
provision  which  yielded  the  three-fifths  slave  representation  in  Con 
gress.  It  is  now  apparent  that  these  concessions  to  slavery  did,  in 
fact,  yield  up  this  nation  to  the  dominion  of  the  slave-power,  for  more 
than  half  a  century.  How  much  longer  it  shall  continue,  is  for  the 
freemen  of  the  Free  States  to  determine.  Your  meeting  is  one  of  the 
struggles  to  resist  that  dominion  ;  and  I  hope  it  will  be  conducted  in  a 
spirit  worthy  the  best  days  of  Massachusetts — the  spirit  of  men  who 
know  their  rights,  and,  knowing,  dare  maintain  them. 

I  am,  very  faithfully  and  truly,  yours, 

WILLIAM  SLADE. 


23 


APPENDIX. 


PETERBORO',  Sept.  22,  1846. 
S.  G.  HOWE,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements : 

Dear  Sir, — I  this  hour  receive  your  circular  letter.  Your  meeting  is 
to  be  held  day  after  to-morrow.  Bodily  infirmities  forbid  my  attending 
it.  If,  however,  I  write  by  the  mail,  which  leaves  in  a  few  minutes, you 
may  get  my  letter  by  the  time  of  the  meeting. 

My  heart  bleeds,  at  one  moment,  for  my  poor  brother,  who  has  been 
re-plunged  into  slavery.  At  another,  it  swells  with  indignation  towards 
the  system  of  which  he  is  the  victim,  and  towards  all,  whether  North 
erners  or  Southerners,  who  are  guilty  of  upholding  it.  At  another  mo 
ment,  my  heart  indulges  a  faint  hope,  that  the  outrage  which  is  the  occa 
sion  of  your  meeting  may  contribute  largely  to  the  overthrow  of  this 
murderous  and  infernal  system.  I  say,  it  is  a  faint  hope.  How,  in  the 
light  of  the  past,  can  it  be  other  than  a  faint  hope  ?  The  Latimer  case 
aroused  Massachusetts  for  a  moment.  So  did  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
So  did  the  insults  to  the  Commissioners  whom  she  sent  to  the  South. 
And  she  has  started  up  indignantly,  almost  as  often  as  she  has  been 
"  cuffed  and  kicked"  by  the  slave  power.  But  her  indignation  has  soon 
expired.  She  has  awakened  to  her  degradation,  only  to  fall  asleep 
again.  Even  when  her  free  citizens  have  been  reduced  to  slavery,  her 
murmurs  have  begun  to  die  away,  almost  as  soon  as  they  began  to 
swell. 

I  confess  that  I  expect  it  will  be  no  better  now.  Your  meeting  will 
be  held.  Glorious  old  Faneuil  Hall  will  not  contain  the  thousands,  who 
will  flock  to  it.  Burning  speeches  will  be  made.  All  Massachusetts 
will  be  wrought  up  to  an  anti-slavery  tempest.  But  it  will  be  a  tempest 
of  words  only.  Vox  et  pr&tcrea  nihil.  In  a  few  weeks  she  will  be  as 
calm,  as  if  not  a  ripple  had  ever  been  raised  upon  her  peaceful  bosom. 
I  say  that  I  expect  nothing  better.  I  do,  indeed,  hope  for  something  bet 
ter.  But  I  repeat  it,  my  hope  is  faint, 

And  why  is  it,  that  all  these  favoring  providences,  which  God  clusters 
upon  Massachusetts,  as  if  to  reward  her  for  her  former  devotion  to  liber 
ty, — why  is  it,  I  say,  that  they  should  all  be  lost  upon  her  ?  It  is  be 
cause  she  does  not  suffer  herself  to  be  led  by  them  to  form  definite  and 
effective  purposes.  Had  she  been  led  by  them  to  the  adoption  of  the 
steadfast  resolution  never  again  to  vote  for  a  slave-holder,  or  for  any 
man  ivho  is  in  political  fellowship  with  slave-holders,  American  slavery, 
now  so  rampant  in  the  presence  of  Massachusetts  cowardice,  would,  ere 
this,  have  been  writhing  and  dying  before  her  bravery. 

Another  of  these  favoring  providences  has  just  now  been  given  to  Mas 
sachusetts.  Oh,  that  a  heart  to  improve  it,  might  also  be  given  to  her ! 
How  memorable  through  all  coming  time  would  be  the  approaching 
meeting, — how  dear  to  all  true  hearts,  were  that  meeting,  composed,  as 
it  will  be,  of  men  of  all  parties,  to  resolve  that,  now,  Massachusetts  will 
prove  herself  to  be  in  earnest  in  her  anti-slavery, — that  now,  after  so 
long  a  time,  her  anti-slavery  shall  be  seen,  not  in  words  only,  but  in  ac 
tions  also!  May  God,  of  His  infinite  goodness,  move  your  meeting  to 
resolve,  unanimously  and  heartily,  to  refrain,  forever,and  in  allcircutn- 


APPENDIX.  ^y 

stances,  from  casting  votes  for  slave-holders,  or  for  those  who  are  in  politi 
cal  fellowship  with  them  !  May  He  also  move  you  to  resolve  to  raise  forth 
with  a  fund  of  ten  or  twenty  thousand  dollars,  to  enable  you  to  send  out, 
without  delay,  all  over  New  England  and  the  North,  including  Ohio  and 
Pennsylvania,  a  host  of  mighty  and  eloquent  men,  who  shall,  under  the 
Divine  blessing,  be  able  to  move  their  hundreds  of  thousands  of  hearers, 
to  resolve  on  NO  VOTING  FOR  SLAVE-HOLDERS,  OR  FOR  THOSE  WHO  ARE  IN 

POLITICAL  FELLOWSHIP  WITH  SLAVE-HOLDERS  ! 

Is  all  this  too  much  to  hope  for  from  your  meeting  ?  I  will,  for  this 
moment,  hope  for  it,  if  only  that  for  this  moment  I  may  be  most  happy. 
Who  knows  but  the  meeting  may  prove  itself  capable  of  all  this  ?  If 
it  should,  then  draw  on  me  for  one  of  the  ten  or  twenty  thousand  dol 
lars. 

God  forbid,  that  this  new  outrage  of  the  slave-power  on  the  soil  of 
Massachusetts,  should  result  in  no  good  to  the  cause  of  liberty  ?  But, 
it  surely  will  not  result  in  good  to  that  cause,  if  your  meeting  shall  not 
be  enough  in  earnest  in  its  anti-slavery,  to  burst  its  pro-slavery  political 
bands,  and  to  crucify  itsekf  to  party,  for  the  sake  of  the  slave. 

The  mail  waits.     My  heart  is  still  full, — but  I  must  break  off. 
Your  friend  and  brother, 

GERRIT  SMITH. 


LENOX,  Sept.  22,  1846. 
S.  G.  HOWE,  ESQ.: 

My  Dear  Sir, — I  was  absent  from  home  when  your  letter  arrived  in 
viting  me  to  a  public  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall,  on  Thursday  next,  and  I 
have  had  no  opportunity  to  acknowledge  it  till  to-day.  It  is  not  in  my 
power  to  be  present  at  that  meeting.  You  request  me, if  I  cannot  attend, 
to  express  my  views  in  relation  to  it. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  am  not  informed  of  what  passed  at  the  preliminary 
meeting,  that  1  might  be  the  better  enabled  to  form  a  judgement  respect 
ing  it.  Every  public  demonstration  of  this  kind  has  some  reference  to 
ulterior  measures,  and  is  so  connected  with  the  previous  public  proceed 
ings  of  Massachusetts,  that  it  is  indeed  a  matter  of  great  difficulty  to  say 
what  is  wise,  and  what  is  not  wise,  on  any  particular  occasion.  For  in 
stance,  with  the  little  light  I  have  upon  this  subject,  it  would  have  seemed 
to  me  most  judicious,  in  this  instance,  to  have  left  the  person  directly 
complained  of,  in  the  hands  of  the  Law.  He  is  charged  in  the  circular, 
substantially,  with  volunteering  his  services,  and  using  force  to  send  back 
a  helpless  fellow  creature  into  slavery,  who  had  been  guilty  of  no  crime  ; 
and  it  is  said  that  his  employers  justify  the  act. 

The  act  charged  is  so  monstrous,  and  the  justification  of  such  an  act, 
by  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  is  so  incomprehensible,  that  it  seems  to  me 
it  should  have  been  investigated  and  passed  upon  with  the  calmness  and 
sanctity  of  a  judicial  proceeding. 

It  is  impossible,  I  think,  for  any  person  who  has  noticed  the  struggle, 


30  APPENDIX. 

and  watched  the  progress  of  the  slave-power  in  this  country  for  the  last 
few  years,  to  avoid  the  melancholy  conclusion,  that  the  people  of  Mas 
sachusetts  have  latterly,  to  some  extent,  and  more  than  ever  before,  given 
their  consent  to  it. 

Ever  since  the  solemn  warning  that  Mr.  Adams  and  other  members  of 
Congress  gave  to  the  North  of  the  projected  annexation  of  Texas,  for 
the  purpose  of  increasing  slave  territory,  the  resistance  to  this  monstrous 
project,  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts,  has  become  less  and  less,  until  the 
power  of  the  slave-holders  has  been  frightfully  extended  and  secured, 
almost  without  remonstrance  or  complaint,  on  the  part  of  our  citizens. 
What  is  wanted  now,  is  unanimity  of  feeling  among  our  people ;  and 
what  I  fear,  is,  that  an  attempt  to  produce  it  on  this  occasion,  will  end  as 
other  attempts  have  done  ; — that  the  spirit  and  interests  of  trade  and 
politics  will  get  the  upper  hand,  and  leave  us  still  farther  behind  our 
ancient  faith  and  practice  as  friends  of  freedom  and  humanity. 

If  it  were  possible,  on  any  occasion,  or  in  any  way,  to  touch  the  heart 
of  Massachusetts,  to  awaken  the  whole  people,  and  induce  them  to  act 
together  as  haters  of  tyranny  in  every  form — consenting  to  no  oppres 
sion,  but  joining  to  resist  and  remove  it,  whenever  and  wherever  God 
shall  give  them  the  ability  and  the  right  to  act,  I  shall  be  too  happy.  The 
next  bitter  cup  will  be  California.  Are  we  prepared  to  drink  it?  Ohio 
says  no.  Perhaps  Massachusetts  will  join  her. 

I  have  answered  your  letter,  my  dear  sir,  from  personal  respect  and 
because  you  request  it,  not  because  I  attach  any  importance  to  what  I 
have  written,  or  to  any  thing  I  could  write,  where  my  information  on  the 
whole  subject  is  so  imperfect  as  it  is  at  present. 

I  am,  very  truly  and  respectfully, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

CHS.  SEDGWICK. 

P.  S.  There  is  another  reason  why  I  should  individually  prefer  a 
public  prosecution  in  this  case,  to  a  public  meeting.  The  slave  placed 
the  master  of  the  vessel  in  a  difficult  position  without  his  consent.  This 
will  excite  some  sympathy  for  the  master  with  many  persons  who  would 
never  think  of  justifying  his  subsequent  conduct.  .The  cases  for  public 
animadversion  have  been,  and  will  be  numerous  enough,  where  the 
wrong  will  be  admitted  to  be  all  on  one  side,  and  where  shame  must 
universally  and  eternally  follow  the  conviction  of  the  truth.  In  this  case, 
I  think  the  slave  was  right  and  the  master  wrong  ;  but  how  many  will 
think  that  the  poor  fellow  ought  to  be  strung  up  for  putting  a  restriction 
upon  trade. 

The  more  I  think  of  it,  the  more  it  seems  to  me  that  the  conduct  of 
the  master  is  so  shocking,  that  he  ought  to  have  all  the  benefit  of  counsel 
in  a  legal  prosecution. 


APPENDIX.  31 

CONCORD,  September  23,  1846. 

DR.  S.  G.  HOWE,  and  Associates  of  the  Committee  of  Citizens : 

If  I  could  do  or  say  any  thing  useful  or  equal  to  the  occasion,  I  would 
not  fail  to  attend  the  meeting  ou  Thursday.  I  feel  the  irreparable  shame 
to  Boston  of  this  abduction.  I  hope  it  is  not  possible  that  the  city  will 
make  the  act  its  own,  by  any  color  or  justification.  Our  State  has  suf 
fered  many  disgraces,  of  late  years,  to  spoil  our  pride  in  it,  but  never 
any  so  flagr  it  as  this,  if  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth  can  be 
brought  to  be  accomplices  in  this  crime, — which,  I  assure  myself,  will 
never  be.  I  hope  it  is  not  only  not  to  be  sustained  by  the  mercantile 
body,  but  not  even  by  the  smallest  portion  of  that  class.  If  the  mer 
chants  tolerate  this  crime, — as  nothing  will  be  too  bad  for  their  desert, 
— so  it  is  very  certain  they  will  have  the  ignominy  very  faithfully  put 
to  their  lips.  The  question  you  now  propose,  is  a  good  test  of  the 
honesty  and  manliness  of  our  commerce.  If  it  shall  turn  out,  as  des 
ponding  men  say,  that  our  people  do  not  really  care  whether  Boston  is 
a  slave-port  or  not,  provided  our  trade  thrives,  then  we  may,  at  least, 
cease  to  dread  hard  times  and  ruin.  It  is  high  time  our  bad  wealth 
came  to  an  end.  I  am  sure,  I  shall  very  cheerfully  take  my  share  of 
suffering  in  the  ruin  of  such  a  prosperity,  and  shall  very  willingly  turn 
to  the  mountains  to  chop  wood,  and  seek  to  find  for  myself  and  my 
children  labors  compatible  with  freedom  and  honor. 

With  this  feeling,  I  am  proportionably  grateful  to  Mr.  Adams  and 
yourselves,  for  undertaking  the  office  of  putting  the  question  to  our 
people,  whether  they  will  make  this  cruelty  theirs  ?  and  of  giving  them 
an  opportunity  of  clearing  the  population  from  the  stain  of  this  crime, 
and  of  securing  mankind  from  the  repetition  of  it,  in  this  quarter,  for 
ever. 

Respectfully  and  thankfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

R.  W.  EMERSON. 


AUBURN,  September  21,  1846. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  : — 

I  have  been  not  inattentive  to  the  transaction  upon  which  you  ani 
madvert,  with  such  just  severity,  in  your  letter  of  the  sixteenth  instant. 
Nor  can  I  doubt  that  it  is  a  just  occasion  for  such  an  expression  of  the 
honest  indignation  of  freemen,  as  is  contemplated  in  the  call  of  the 
public  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall.  I  should  rejoice  to  witness  a  scene  so 
proper  in  that  consecrated  Fabric,  and  more  especially,  since  it  is  to  be 
sanctioned  by  the  name  and  presence  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  His 
name  lends  dignity,  and  his  presence  imparts  the  deepest  interest  to 


OZ  APPENDIX. 

every  event  with  which  they  are  associated.     But,  I  have  inflexible  en 
gagements  here. 

With  many  thanks  for  the  honor  of   your   invitation,  and   sincere 
sympathy  in  your  efforts  in  the  cause  of  humanity, 
I  remain,  very  respectfully, 

Your  humble  servant, 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD. 
S.  G.  HOWE,  ESQ.,  Chairman  of  Committee  of  Arrangements. 


WOOLWICH,  Sept.  21,  1846. 
DEAR  SIR  : — 

Your  official  letter  of  the  16th,  communicating  a  kind  request  that  I 
would  attend  a  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  24th  instant,  called  to 
consider  what  can,  or  should  be  done  in  regard  to  the  cruel  and  wanton 
outrage  committed  on  the  person  and  rights  of  a  man,  our  fellow,  by  a 
captain  of  one  of  your  vessels,  was  received  at  the  moment  of  my  leav 
ing  Portland  to  attend  a  term  of  our  S.  J.  Court  at  Wiscasset.  The 
fact  of  this,  my  necessary  absence,  prevents  me  from  complying  with 
the  request,  This  I  exceedingly  regret,  as  otherwise  I  should  deem  it 
my  imperative  duty  to  attend  the  meeting,  and  by  my  presence,  at  least, 
to  unite  in  a  solemn  protest,  of  the  superlatively  wicked  and  wanton 
act  of  this  sea  captain,  who  1  hope  inherits  not  one  drop  of  the  blood 
of  our  pilgrim  ancestors.  His  cruelty  shames  even  that  of  the  wolf 
and  hyena. 

I  can  conceive  of  no  lower  link  in  the  descending  chain  of  human 
depravity,  than  that  to  which  this — I  hope  not — son  of  New  England, 
has  let  himself  down  in  his  descent  to  the  abode  of  devils  damned. 
But,  after  all,  it  is  the  legitimate  result  of  that  inordinate  love  of  gain, 
which  is  the  peculiar  characteristic,  master  passion,  of  the  American 
people,  arid  particularly  of  my  loved  New  England.  Yes  !  this  ruling 
passion,  of  which  commercial  cupidity  is  only  one  development,  seems 
to  rne  well  nigh  to  have  extinguished  national  honor,  national  faith,  na 
tional  justice,  and  individual  humanity,  and  changed  this  people  into  a 
nation  of  robbers  and  assassins,  whose  tyrannical,  blood-stained,  heaven- 
defying  character  is  unrelieved  by  any  such  generous  acts  as  have 
sometimes  marked  that  of  the  common  bandit,  and  occasionally  roused 
a  sympathy  for  the  pick-pocket. 

Should  this  act  of  atrocity  surprise  us  in  an  individual,  while  as  a 
nation  we  have  planted  the  iron  heel  of  oppression  on  the  necks  of  three 
millions  of  just  such  victims  as  this  merciless  rascal  of  a  sea  captain 
has  robbed  of  his  rights?  Should  we  wonder  at  this  act  of  individual 
robbery  while  we  look  at  the  robbery  of  the  noble  Indians,  of  their  in 
heritance,  mainly  to  perpetuate  slavery? — while,  as  a  nation,  we  are 
at  this  moment,  robbing  a  feeble  nation  of  her  territory,  and  murdering 
her  defenceless  citizens,  to  do  to  millions  what  this  vile  miscreant  has 


APPENDIX.  33 

done  to  a  solitary  individual  ? — while  we  consent  to,  and  aid  in  elevat 
ing  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  people,  those  men,  who  are 

inflicting  on  hundreds  and  thousands,  precisely  what  this  Capt. ,  (I 

have  not  his  name  before  me,)  has  done  to  one  ?  My  astonishment  is, 
that  the  atrocious  act  has  not  already  brought  him  forward  as  a  candi 
date  for  some  high  public  office. 

If  our  souls  are  harrowed  up,  as  well  they  may  be,  at  this  individual 
outrage,  how  ought  we  to  feel  and  to  act  in  its  multiplication  three 
millions  of  times,  not  by  an  individual  but  by  the  power  of  a  whole 
nation. 

I  would  not  say  any  thing  which  might  be  calculated  to  lessen  the 
detestation  which  may  be  felt  by  those  who  may  meet  on  this  great  oc 
casion,  for  this  dastardly,  as  well  as  atrocious  crime  of  this  sea  captain. 
No!  if  law  be  of  any  value,  let  him  feel  its  penalty.  Let  public  indig 
nation,  at  least,  flash  in  the  face  of  every  such  vile  miscreant?  But, 
1  would  to  God,  the  fact,  vfhich  has  been  the  occasion  of  the  gathering, 
might  open  the  eyes  of  all  the  people  to  the  infinitely  more  aggravated 
fact,  that  hitherto  they  have  been  united  in  committing  three  millions 
of  deeds  equally  criminal  in  the  sight  of  a  just  God,  if  not  emphati 
cally  condemned  by  the  laws  of  men. 

But  of  such  illimitable  magnitude  has  this  sin  of  slavery  become,  that 
the  human  mind  seems  incapable  of  grasping  it.  1  rejoice  that  it  can, 
seize  hold  of  and  partially  comprehend  this  solitary  case. 

May  the  American  mind,  fostered  by  humanity,  and  stimulated  by 
such  individual  acts,  soon  expand  to  such  dimensions  as  to  enable  it 
successfully  to  seize  upon  and  grapple  with,  and  utterly  demolish  that 
system  of  human  slavery,  of  which  the  case  to  be  considered  is  one  of 
its  legitimate  results  ;  and  which,  horrible  as  it  is,  is  by  no  means  the 
most  diabolical. 

My  heart  will  be  with  the  Convention,  while 
I  remain  the  friend  of  the  slave, 

And  the  Committee's  grateful  and  humble  servant, 

SAMUEL  FESSENDEN. 
Mr,  S.  G.  HOWE,  Chairman,  &c. 


WESTMINSTER,  Sept.  25,  1846, 
SIR:— 

Having  been  absent  from  home,  I  did  not  receive  your  invitation  to 
attend  your  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  24th,  until  that  evening. 
The  case  set  forth  in  your  circular  is  well  calculated  to  excite  public 
indignation.  I  should  have  been  pleased  to  be  with  you,  but  could  not. 
It  is  time  that  we  knew  our  rights  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  know 
ing  them,  should  be  found  willing  to  stand  by  them. 

I  am,  sir,  respectfully,  your  ob't  servant, 

C.  HUDSON. 

S.  G.  HOWE,  ESQ. 

5 


LETTERS  OF  MESSRS.  HANNUM  AND  PEARSON. 


We  present  the  following  letters  by  Capt.  Hannuni  and  Mr.  Pearson, 
as  illustrative  of  the  case,  and  as  they  will  be  important  to  the  future 
history  of  slavery  in  Massachusetts.  The  extraordinary  nature  of  their 
contents  is  such  that  they  need  no  comments  from  the  Committee. 

BOSTON,  Sept.   16,  1846. 
To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  BOSTON  POST  : 

Certain  inflammatory  articles,  with  lavish  abuse  of  my  employers  and 
myself,  first  made  me  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  "  Chronotype." 

The  authors  of  the  above  were  doubtless  persons  unconnected  with 
commerce — ignorant  of  the  liabilities  of  shipmasters — intent  only  upon 
carrying  out  their  own  selfish,  narrow  minded  principles,  regardless  of 
the  means  employed. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  particulars  of  the  late  slave  case  : — 
On  the  morning  of  his  discovery,  (August  14th,)  I  gave  him  to  under 
stand  that  he  must  be  sent  back  by  the  first  vessel ;  and  for  this  purpose 
had  a  frequent  look-out  at  the  mast  head.  Not  being  successful  in 
meeting  a  vessel  bound  out  to  New  Orleans,  I  left  him  in  the  lower 
harbor  on  my  arrival,  while  I  came  to  the  city  for  advice.  Messrs. 
Pearson  &  Co.,  (as  I  believe)  with  motives  of  the  purest  justice,  de 
cided  that  he  must  go  back — and  back  he  has  gone  ;  but  he  has  not 
been  "  sent  away  empty."  He  received  many  presents  ip  money  and 
clothing  from  my  friends  who  visited  me  while  in  the  harbor,  and  from 
the  time  of  his  discovery  till  his  re-shipment,  he  lived  and  fared  as  1  did 
myself.  Were  it  necessary  I  could  produce  many  witnesses  who  saw 
and  conversed  with  him,  to  prove  that  he  expressed  his  regret  that  he 
absconded  from  me — that  he  was  willing  to  abide  by  my  decision  and 
return  to  his  master.  As  for  that  motley  crew  of  whites  and  blacks  who 
crowded  the  deck  of  the  "  Lincoln,"  and  hailed  me  in  the  "  Vision," 
with  cries  of  "Run  him  down,"  "Fire  into  him" — I  doubt  if  there  is 
one  of  them  who  would  be  more  rejoiced  to  see  a  slave  set  free,  or  the 
whole  institution  of  slavery,  with  its  thousand  curses,  tumbled  to  the 
dust,  than  the  "  kidnapper  captain"  whom  they  were  so  intent  upon 
persecuting.  It  is  such  wild  proceedings  as  these,  and  clandestinely 
bringing  slaves  to  liberty,  that  forges  still  stronger  the  fetters  of  slavery 
at  the  south  and  keeps  alive  that  spirit  of  enmity  between  us  and  our 
southern  brethren. 

I  think  they  accuse  me  of  mercenary  motives,  which  is  the  most  ab 
surd  of  all  their  charges. 


APPENDIX.  35 

If  they  will  look  at  some  of  the  New  Orleans  papers  they  will  learn 
the  amount  of  the  reward,  and  can  then  judge  how  much  of  an  induce 
ment  it  would  be  to  absent  myself  from  home  and  all  its  domestic  en 
joyments  for  four  days,  after  an  absence  of  three  months.  Furthermore, 
the  captain  who  takes  him  to  New  Orleans  is  directed  to  take  no 
reward,  but  to  plead  earnestly  for  the  slave  for  release  from  punish 
ment. 

In  my  letter  to  the  master,  now  in  possession  of  the  slave,  I  have 
stated  that,  in  sending  him  back,  I  sacrifice  feelings  of  humanity  and 
private  principles  to  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  solicit  in  return  a  miti 
gation  of  punishment  for  the  unfortunate  offender. 

The  master,  no  doubt,  would  rather  never  see  the  slave,  if  he  could 
secure  me  or  the  Ottoman.  He  could  then  place  a  high  value  upon 
him,  which  I  should  be  compelled  to  pay,  and  then  comes  fine  and  im 
prisonment  to  satisfy  the  offended  law  of  Louisiana. 

I  will  say  no  more.  To  the  hands  of  my  brother  shipmasters — the 
press — the  public,  abolitionists  and  all — I  leave  the  subject  for  their 
consideration.  JAS.  W.  HANNUM, 

Master  brig  Ottoman. 


To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  BOSTON  JOURNAL  : 

On  perusal  of  a  late  number  of  the  Journal,  (Sept.  12th)  I  there 
find  that  my  recent  difficulties  have  been  justly  and  impartially  con 
sidered.  For  this,  gentlemen,  my  thanks  are  due.  I  will  not  enter 
into  the  details  of  the  "  slave  case."  They  are  well  known  to  my  many 
friends,  who  are  fully  aware  of  the  justice  of  my  intentions.  With  my 
enemies,  I  wish  not  to  provoke  a  needless  controversy.  The  only  one 
of  their  abusive  charges  that  I  wish  to  refute,  is  that  of  falsely  accusing 
the  fugitive  with  theft.  This  is  erroneous, — the  accusation  was  just  ; 
for  my  coat,  containing  a  pocket-book  and  other  small  articles,  were  in 
his  possession  at  the  time  of  his  escape,  and  given  up  after  he  was  re 
taken.  Very  respectfully,  yours, 

JAMES  W.  HANNUM. 


Compare  the  preceding  with  the  two  following,  taken  from  the  New 
Orleans  Picayune,  and  evidently  written  for  a  Southern  public  opinion, 
and  then  judge  of  Capt.  Hannum's  sincerity. 

BOSTON,  Sept.  11,  1846. 
EDITORS  OF  THE  PICAYUNE  : — 

In  my  own  native  city,  a  refugee  from  the  fury  of  the  abolitionists,  I 
address  you  on  a  grave  subject,  though  it  has  placed  me  in  the  midst  of 
many  a  comical  and  ludicrous  scene. 

I  cleared  at  your  port  on  the  9th,  and  sailed  on  the  10th  of  August, 
in  command  of  the  brig  Ottoman,  for  Boston.  Seven  days  out,  a  mu- 


36 


APPENDIX. 


latto  slave  was  found  secreted  in  the  fore  peak  ;  I  kept  a  look-out  at  the 
mast-head,  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  vessel  by  which  to  send  him 
back,  but  unfortunately  did  not  succeed  ;  kept  on  my  way,  and  arrived 
off  Boston  light  at  2  on  the  morning  of  tht  7th.  Here  I  placed  the 
runaway  on  board  of  a  pilot-boat  for  safe  keeping  till  4,  A.  M.,  the  next 
day,  when  I  arrived  from  town  according  to  agreement,  and  took  the 
darkey  in  my  boat,  which  contained,  beside  myself,  a  trusty  friend,  a  boy 
of  sixteen,  and  a  boatman.  Agreeable  to  arrangements  in  town,  I  was 
to  await  the  bark  Niagara,  to  sail  next  day  for  New  Orleans.  That 
night  an  easterly  gale  commenced,  and  next  day  no  Niagara  came.  Un 
able  to  weather  it  any  longer  in  the  lower  harbor,  1  kept  her  away  for 
Spectacle  Island.  There,  as  ill-luck  would  have  it, while  taking  "a  drop  of 
consolation"  at  the  hotel,  the  negro  gave  me  the  slip,  and  with  the  boat 
made  sail  for  South  Boston  Point ;  post  haste  we  followed  in  another 
boat,  but  he  landed  about  ten  minutes  ahead.  We  to»k  after  him, 
through  corn-fields  and  over  fences,  till  finally,  after  a  chase  of  two 
miles,  I  secured  him  just  as  he  reached  the  bridge.  Accusing  him  of 
theft,  I  marched  him,  arm  in  arm,  towards  the  Point,  followed  by  a 
crowd  of  men  and  boys — a  friend  came  up  with  a  team,  when  I  drove 
to  the  Point,  and  we  took  to  our  boats  and  were  off. 

The  news  of  the  escape  arid  capture  spread  through  the  city — officers 
were  despatched  in  all  directions — $100  reward  was  offered  for  the 
"kidnapper-captain  and  pirate-boat  Warren."  That  night  we  lay  at 
anchor  under  Lovell's  Island — the  easterly  blow  continued — we  dared 
not  venture  farther  out.  Next  morning  our  case  was  desperate.  Out 
of  water  and  provisions,  I  beat  down  to  the  outer  island  in  the  harbor, 
(an  uninhabited  pile  of  barren  rocks,)  landed  with  the  dark'ey  and  boy, 
and  sent  my  companions  to  town  for  supplies  and  another  boat,  while 
we  remained  hid  in  the  gullies  of  the  rocks.  They  returned  at  night 
with  the  "  Vision,"  the  fastest  sailer  in  the  bay,  and  took  us  off.  So 
hotly  were  they  pursued  in  town,  that  the  only  refreshments  they  were 
enabled  to  obtain  were  gin  and  crackers,  and  on  these  we  subsisted 
during  the  remainder  of  the  expedition.  We  now  stood  for  sea,  arid 
waited  tor  the  Niagara  till  2,  P.  M.,  the  next  day,  (the  12th,)  when  she 
came  out  in  tow  of  a  steamer.  I  put  him  on  board  as  the  steamer  left, 
giving  Capt.  Rea  letters  explanatory  of  the  whole  affair.  No  sooner 
had  I  left  the  bark  than  I  discovered  a  steamer  making  directly  for  us. 
Knowing  she  could  chase  but  one,  I  steered  a  course  opposite  to  the 
Niagara  till  the  steamer  came  up  and  ordered  me  to  heave  to  ;  this 
for  some  time  I  refused  to  do,  wishing  to  delay  then:  as  long  as  possible, 
in  order  to  give  the  Niagara  a  chance  to  get  clear.  Bayonets  glistened 
in  all  parts  of  the  boat;  darkies  were  there  of  every  hue,  crying  out, 
"Run  him  down,"  *'Fire  into  him,"  &c.  After  this  was  hushed,  and 
I  had  brought  them  to  terms  of  civility,  I  hove  to,  and  received  on 
board  two  officers,  who  examined  the  craft;  not  finding  the  object  of 
their  search,  they  went  on  board  the  steamer  and  put  off  for  the  bark; 
but  they  had  wasted  too  much  time  with  me — the  Niagara  was  well  out 
to  sea,  with  a  fine  breeze.  The  abolitionists,  after  chasing  her  a  few 
miles,  became  sea-sick,  and  commenced  casting  up  their  accounts;  the 
balance  were  in  favor  of  returning  home,  and  back  they  went,  to  wreak 


APPENDIX. 


their  vengeance  on  your  humble  servant — humble  enough,  God  knows, 
though  elevated  to  garret  life. 

Stigmatized  as  a  slave-stealer  at  the  South — branded  as  a  kidnapper 
at  the  North — rny  situation  is  anything  but  enviable.  The  journals  here 
are  bitter  against  me,  and  accuse  me  of  interested  motives.  On  the 
contrary,  with  a  hundred  dollars  reward  against  me,  1  have  been  obliged 
to  spend  a  like  sum  in  order  to  re-ship  the  negro  to  his  master.  Mr. 
John  H.  Pearson,  Esq.,  a  merchant  of  this  city,  well  known  for  his  in 
tegrity,  is  the  owner  of  the  Niagara  and  Ottoman,  and  sanctions  my 
proceedings.  This  is  my  lengthy  story  ;  lay  it  before  your  readers,  that 
they  may  may  know  we  are  not  all  abolitionists,  and  that  the  reputation 
of  our  beautiful  city  may  not  suffer  through  their  disgraceful  proceed 
ings.  Very  respectfully,  yours,  gentlemen, 

JAMES  W.  HANNUM, 
Master  bris  Ottoman. 


CAPT,  HANNUM. — The  following  letter  best  explains  the  unfortunate 
position  of  Capt.  Hannum,  of  the  brig  Ottoman.  For  his  exertions  to 
avoid  the  penalty  inflicted  by  the  law  of  this  State  for  carrying  off  a 
slave,  and  for  restoring  to  his  owner  a  runaway  from  this  State,  he  is 
now  incarcerated  in  Boston.  His  case  appeals  warmly  to  the  sympa 
thies  of  the  South.  (Ed.  ot  Picayune.) 

BOSTON,  September  22,  1846. 
EDITORS  OF  THE  PICAYUNE  : — 

Sorely  hunted  and  tracked  by  those  cursed  blood-hounds,  the  aboli 
tionists,  I  give  you  my  last  communication  previous  to  taking  up  my 
quarters  in  Leverett  street  jail.  The  one-sided  position  in  which  I  am 
placed,  with  a  political  party  headed  by  an  eminent  lawyer  to  contend 
with,  may  be  easily  imagined.  The  felonious  charge  of  "  kidnapping," 
they  are  determined  to  sustain  at  any  cost.  The  daily  papers  of  the 
city,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  have  not  ventured  to  advance  a  single 
sentiment  in  my  favor. 

And  all  this  row  and  excitement  about  a  vagabond  drunken  negro. 
This!  for  offending  the  enemies  of  our  Union,  in  order  to  comply  with 
the  laws  of  a  sister  State.  Talk  of  justice.  She  is  not  here.  She  emi 
grated  South  long  ago  ;  and  to  the  South  I  must  appeal  to  save  me  from 
fine  and  imprisonment. 

In  your  hands,  gentlemen,  I  leave  the  subject,  feeling  certain  that  you 
will  not  fail  to  place  the  matter  before  the  citizens  of  Louisiana  in  its 
true  and  proper  light.  In  this  remains  my  only  hope. 

Communications  may  be  addressed  to  the  care  of  J.  H.  P.  &  Co.,  75 
Long  Wharf,  Boston. 

Very  respectfully,  yours, 

JAMES  W.  HANNUM, 
Late  Master  of  the  brig  Ottoman. 


38  APPENDIX. 

The  following  appeared  in  the  Boston  Courier  of  Oct.  15th.  We  be 
lieve  that  Mr.  Pearson  will  ere  long  regret  that  he  ever  wrote  it : — 

BOSTON,  14th  October,  1846. 
HON.  S.  C.  PHILLIPS,  SALEM  : — • 

Dear  Sir, — In  your  remarks  made  in  Faneuil  Hall,  on  the  24th 
ultimo,  you  stated  "  there  was  not  another  merchant  in  Boston  who  would 
have  advised  or  countenanced  in  sending  back  the  slave  who  had  secret 
ed  himself  on  board  the  brig  Ottoman,  and  that  you  considered  the  act 
worse  than  piracy."  This  is  making  strong  assertions,  and  I  do  not  like 
for  any  person  to  make  such,  when  I  have  almost  universally  been  justi 
fied  by  any  act  or  advice  I  have  done  or  given  Capt.  Hannum,  which 
was  this — On  his  arrival,  he  stated  that  he  found  secreted  on  board  his 
vessel,  a  slave,  and  unless  he  was  sent  back  to  his  owner  he  could  never 
return  to  New  Orleans,  without  being  imprisoned  from  two  to  ten  years, 
and  fined  the  value  of  the  slave.  Knowing  with  what  strictness  the 
slave  States  enforce  their  laws,  in  respect  to  the  taking  away  this  species 
of  property,  and  rather  than  Capt.  Hannum  should  incur  the  penalty  of 
a  southern  prison,  I  unhesitatingly  replied,  "  I  know  of  no  other  alterna 
tive  but  to  send  him  back  to  his  owner."  He  left  me  to  find  a  vessel  to 
take  him  back,  and  I  have  not  seen  him  from  that  day  to  the  present. 
On  the  day  the  slave  was  reported  on  shore,  I  was  absent  from  the  city, 
and  all  the  doings  since  I  gather  from  the  papers  and  street  gossip.  I 
only  hope  he  will  be  safely  returned  to  his  owner,  for  I  consider  the  free 
States  have  no  right  to  succor  the  runaway  slave,  unless  you  trample 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  under  your  feet,  and  make  it  a  dead 
letter. 

What  does  it  amount  towards  freeing  the  slave,  to  succor  the  few  run 
aways  that  may  secrete  themselves  on  board  our  northern  ships,  laying 
the  captains  liable  to  imprisonment  and  our  vessels  to  seizure,  to  pay  for 
them.  There  is  no  philanthropy  held  out  towards  our  shipmasters  who 
may  be  innocently  caught  with  a  secreted  slave  ;  but  it  is  very  philan 
thropic  to  steal  the  property  of  our  southern  neighbors,  and  have  our 
white  citizens  imprisoned  in  exchange.  I  do  not  envy  your  feelings,  to 
promulgate  such  a  creed.  But  to  return  to  your  remarks,  "  that  I  am 
the  only  person  who  would  have  advised  sending  the  slave  back" — if 
you  will  do  me  the  favor  to  be  on  'Change,  any  day,  from  half-past  one 
to  two  o'clock,  I  will  take  the  voice  of  those  assembled,  to  ascertain  if  I 
am  the  only  one.  If  I  mistake  not,  you  will  find  the  response  of  jive  to 
one,  that  they  would  have  done  likewise,  placed  in  a  similar  situation. 
Until  you  do  do  this,  or  make  some  other  demonstration  of  your  error, 
I  shall  consider  you  a  libeller. 

I  am,  respectfully, 

JNO.  H.  PEARSON. 


COMMITTEE  OF  VIGILANCE, 

AND    ITS    DOINGS. 


The  Committee  appointed  at  the 
posed  of  the  following  gentlemen  :— 

SAMUEL  G.  HOWE, 
ELLIS  GRAY  LORING, 
CHARLES  SUMNER, 
J.  A.  ANDREW, 
SAMUEL  MAY, 
FRANCIS  JACKSON, 
HENRY  B.  STANTON, 
J.  B.  SMITH, 
SAMUEL  E.  SEW  ALL, 
JOHN  G.  KING, 
JOHN  L.  EMMONS, 
THEODORE  PARKER, 
RICHARD  HILDRETH, 
JOHN  A.  INNIS,  (Salem,) 
JAMES  T.  FISHER, 
WILLIAM  F.  WELD, 
WILLIAM  C.  NELL, 
WILLIAM  I.  BOWDITCH, 
ROBERT  MORRIS,  JR. 
ANSON  J.  STONE, 


Faneuil  Hall   Meeting  was  com- 

WALTER  CHANNING, 
A.  B.  PHELPS, 
S.  S.  CURTIS, 
JOSEPH  SOUTHWICK, 
BENJAMIN  WEEDEN, 
A.  C.  SPOONER, 
AMOS  B.  MERRILL, 
CHARLES  F.  HOVEY, 
S.  E.  BRACKETT, 
J.  W.  BROWNE, 
CORNELIUS  BRAMHALL, 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS, 
HENRY  I.  BOWDITCH, 
T.  T.  BOUVE, 

JAMES  N.  BUFFUM,  (Lynn.) 
GEORGE  W.  BOND, 
WILLIAM  F.  CHANNING, 
JAMES  F.  CLARKE, 
GEORGE  DODGE, 
HENRY  JAMES  PRENTISS. 


Messrs.  W.  Phillips,  Phelps  and  Bramhall  declined  acting. 

The  Committee  met  September  30th,  1846,  and  organized  by  chosing 
Samuel  G.  Howe,  Chairman,  and  Henry  I.  Bowditch,  Secretary,  and 
the  following  sub-committees  : — 

Executive  Committee, — Samuel  G.  Howe,  John  W.  Browne,  Henry  I. 
Bowditch,  John  G.  King  and  William  F.Channing. 

Committee  of  Finance, — John  A.  Andrew,  George  W.  Bond,  T.  T. 
Bouve,  James  T.  Fisher,  Henry  I.  Bowditch. 


40  APPENDIX. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee,  John  W.  Browne,  (No.  9, 
Court  St.)  was  chosen  General  Agent ;  and  he  was  directed  "  to  offer  a 
REWARD  OF  ONE  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  to  be  paid  to  the  per- 
son  who  shall  give  the  earliest  information  concerning  any  alleged  slave, 
held  secreted  here  for  the  purpose  of  being  carried  away  against  his 
will." 

2d.  It  was  voted  "  that  every  one  who  shall  have  endeavored  to  give 
the  earliest  information  and  to  render  aid,  shall  be  paid  for  his  service 
what  it  shall  be  fairly  worth,  to  which  also  a  further  sum  in  the  way  of 
reward,  shall  be  added  according  to  the  circumstances." 


By  a  vote  of  the  General  Committee,  (Sept.  30,)  the  Committee  on 
Finance  was  directed  to  take  measures  for  the  immediate  raising  of  the 
sum  of  ONE  THOUSAND  DOLLARS  as  a  fund  for  the  general  pur 
poses  for  which  the  Committee  was  appointed. 


NATIONAL  LEAGUE  FOR  FREEDOM. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  suggestion,  made  at  the  termination  of  the  Ad 
dress,  will  meet  with  responsive  hearts  throughout  the  whole  extent  of 
our  Union — so  that  the  day  may  soon  come  when  all  the  Friends  of  Man 
may  form  One  Sacred  Alliance  of  the  Free.  In  furtherance  of  this  ho 
ly  object,  the  Committee  request  counsel  from  all  the  True-Hearted. 


RESULT  OP  THE  CASE  BEFORE  THE  GRAND  JURY. 


Since  the  foregoing  documents  were  printed,  the  result  of  the  inquiry 
of  the  Grand  Jury  in  regard  to  Capt.  Hannum  has  been  made  public. 
Immediately  after  their  appointment,  the  Vigilance  Committee  took 
measures  to  collect  the  evidence  in  the  case.  One  of  their  number  was 
employed  for  several  days  in  the  performance  of  this  duty.  A  perfect 
chain  of  evidence,  as  it  seemed  to  the  Committee,  was  obtained,  so 
that  they  were  justified  in  laying  the  case  before  the  Grand  Jury. 
The  first  application  was  met  by  the  statement,  that  that  body  had 
already  too  much  business  on  hand,  and  could  not  attend  to  the  mat 
ter.  Early  in  this  month,  the  subject  was  again  brought  forward,  and 
it  is  now  given  out  that  the  Grand  Jury  say  that  there  is  not  evidence 
enough  to  warrant  them  in  .presenting  Capt.  Hannum  for  trial,  on  the 
charge  of  kidnapping  this  man  from  our  soil.  The  Committee  must 
submit,  however  much  they  may  question  the  justice  of  the  conclusion 
to  which  the  Jury  has  arrived.  It  is  evident  that  the  question  of  person 
al  liberty,  at  least  in  the  case  of  a  colored  man,  is  considered  of  little 
moment  in  Massachusetts. 

The  following  is  a  sketch  of  the  evidence,  as  collected  by  the  Com 
mittee  : — 

James  Norris,  steward  of  the  Ottoman,  and  John  Smith,  seaman, 
knew  the  circumstances  under  which  the  mulatto,  George,  was  found 
concealed  on  board  the  Ottoman,  when  about  a  week  out  from  New 
Orleans.  On  the  arrival  of  the  Ottoman  near  Boston  Light,  John  Smith, 
then  at  the  wheel,  saw  the  mulatto,  by  Hannum's  orders,  go  on  board  a 
pilot  boat  and  leave  the  vessel.  This  was  at  night,  towards  morning. 

John  Matthews,  steward  of  the  pilot  boat  Sylph,  in  charge  of  pilot 
Fowler,  on  awaking  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday  Sept,  8th,  found  the 
mulatto  on  board.  The  Sylph  was  just  outside  of  Boston  Light,  where 
she  remained  during  the  day.  Pilot  Phillips,  in  the  course  of  the  day, 


42 

came  on  board  and  advised  to  let  the  mulatto  go  ;  but  Fowler  said  he 
had  promised  Hannum  to  keep  him  till  evening.  In  the  evening,  Han- 
num  came  down  in  another  boat,  with  three  men,  and  took  the  mulatto 
on  board.  Hannum  said  he  meant  to  send  him  back  in  a  barque  of 
Pearson's  to  come  down  by  the  first  wind.  He  landed  with  the  mulatto 
at  Light  House  Island. 

William  C.  Reed,  resident  on  Spectacle  Island,  saw,  on  Wednesday 
morning,  Sept.  9th,  the  boat  Warren  come  to  that  island,  from  below. 
On  board  was  Hannum,  the  mulatto,  a  boy,  and  two  others.  They  said 
they  had  been  down  fishing,  were  caught  in  a  squall,  and  spent  the  night 
at  Light  House  Island.  About  noon,  the  mulatto  contrived  to  get  on 
board  the  Warren,  which  lay  at  the  wharf,  and  set  sail  for  South  Bos 
ton.  Hannum  and  his  gang  took  Reed's  boat,  which  lay  at  the  wharf, 
aad  pursued.  In  about  two  hours  the  boats  returned.  The  Warren 
kept  off  in  the  channel,  near  the  island,  but  one  of  the  men,  who  came 
on  shore,  said  the  mulatto  was  in  her,  and  was  a  runaway  slave  whom 
Hannum  was  going  to  send  back.  Thereupon  Reed  took  his  boat  and 
came  to  Boston,  to  give  information  to  the  Police.  The  Warren  left 
Spectacle  Island  about  the  same  time,  and  Reed  watched  her  till  she 
landed  at  Point  Shirley. 

Wm.  G.  Reed,  carpenter,  South  Boston — Mrs.  Sarah  Laforme,  2d 
st.,  South  Boston — Henry  Leonard,  do. — Daniel  McGowen,  corner  of 
Turnpike  st.  and  Broadway — Charles  G.  Cutter,  11  and  12  Turnpike  st. 
— John  Fenno,  Jr.  of  the  South  Boston  Hotel,  and  James  Toplijf,  a 
boarder  at  the  Hotel,  were  able  to  detail  the  whole  circumstances  of  the 
capture  of  the  mulatto  at  South  Boston  by  Hannum  and  his  gang,  under 
pretence  that  he  was  a  thief — the  placing  him  in  a  wagon  and  carrying 
him  to  South  Boston  Point,  and  putting  him  on  board  the  Warren. 

Pratt  and  Andrews,  constables,  during  the  ineffectual  pursuit  of  the 
Niagara  on  Friday,  Sept.  llth,  boarded  the  Vision,  (pilot  boat)  on  which 
they  found  Hannum  and  his  gang.  He  (Hannum)  said  he  had  brought 
the  man  on  in  the  Ottoman — had  now  got  rid  of  him,  and  was  glad  of 
it,  but  that  he  did  not  go  in  the  Niagara. 


JANl3'64-4^ 


Return  to  desk  from  which 
nthe  ,ast  date 


2  9  1966  05 

8i  fc  Be 4 often 
1 5  1989 


76 


YB  37546 


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